
Class 

Book 

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Uhc XIlniY>ersit£ ot Chicago 

FOUNDED DY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 



THE IDEA OF THE RESURRECTION 
IN THE ANTE-NICENE PERIOD 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE DIVINITY SCHOOL 

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(department of new testament literature and interpretation) 



BY 

CALVIN KLOPP STAUDT 



CHICAGO 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

1909 



Copyright 1909 By 
The University of Chicago 



Published March 1909 



Composed and Printed By 

The University of Chicago Press 

Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A. 



USRARY of CONGRESS 


Two CoDies 


Received 


APR 12 


\m 


_ Copyrifiiii 

CLASS CU 

COPY 


tntry 
XXc, No. 



PREFACE 

This treatise aims to trace historically the development of the idea of 
the resurrection from its origin in the Old Testament, through Jewish and 
Christian literature, to the end of the first quarter of the fourth century. 
The precise theme is the resurrection of Jesus and of men as held in the 
ante-Nicene period. To discover this, the extant literature of this period 
has been carefully studied and investigated. The volumes in the Ante- 
Nicene Christian Library have been read, and passages pertaining to the 
resurrection studied in critical editions of the Fathers. The material is so 
grouped and treated that the story of the resurrection may be readily fol- 
lowed through the various stages. The aim of the author has been not 
merely to set forth the different historical strata in the idea of the resurrection, 
but also to deal with influences and inferences, in the hope that through 
this extensive study in early Christian literature suggestions may have been 
given for a more intensive study of the question of the resurrection in the 
New Testament and of the facts pertaining to the resurrection of Jesus. 
The author wishes to acknowledge special obligation to Professor Ernest 
D. Burton, of the University of Chicago, for generous help and inspiration. 

C. K. S. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. Jewish and Greek Literature i 

II. The New Testament 9 

III. The Apostolic Fathers 18 

IV. The Apologists 26 

V. The Gnostics 39 

VI. The Great Polemicists 46 

VII. The Alexandrian School 60 

VIII. The Later Writers 65 

IX. Conclusion 71 



CHAPTER I 

JEWISH AND GREEK LITERATURE 

This essay aims to trace the idea of the resurrection, both of Jesus and 
of men, as held in the ante-Nicene period. The literature of the period 
has been carefully studied with a view of ascertaining what men thought 
about the resurrection and what doctrines they held concerning it. The 
problem is confined mainly to a discussion of the precise nature and charac- 
ter of the resurrection. The distinction between the resurrection and 
the larger subject of the future life — to which belongs the conception of 
Hades, judgment, second coming, millennium, future rewards and punish- 
ments, and redemption — is constantly kept in mind. However, all these 
elements of eschatology are often knit up with the resurrection; and so 
far as they present collateral testimony to the resurrection they are brought 
into the discussion. Moreover, in the history of the resurrection-idea, 
especially in the early strata, a constant distinction is made between the 
resurrection of the Jews and that of the Gentiles, and between the resur- 
rection of the righteous and that of the wicked. But this again is not the 
main subject of our study, and is considered only when it throws light and 
shade upon a more vital and intricate problem. The essential purpose of 
the essay is to set forth the nature of that which was supposed to continue 
in the after-life. 

A prerequisite to the study of the resurrection in early Christian litera- 
ture is a knowledge of the New Testament conception. But even this 
does not comprise all the necessary antecedent conditions. The idea of 
the resurrection did not leap into life full-grown, having its first appearance 
in the New Testament; it passed through certain stages and a long period 
of development. There are presuppositions to the New Testament material 
which dare not be overlooked; for the earliest conceptions are genetically 
related to the New Testament teachings, and besides, the literature of pre- 
Christian times exerted a direct influence on post-apostolic times. Inquiry 
must, therefore, be made into the Old Testament and into later Jewish 
writings, whether Palestinian or Alexandrian. Another very important 
prerequisite is the Graeco-Roman idea of immortality, the influence of 
which was both positive and negative in early Christian literature. The 
Jewish and Greek literature is therefore examined with a view of determin- 
ing the idea or ideas which were held concerning the after-life before, or 

i 



2 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

contemporaneous with, New Testament literature. The matter being 
introductory, the results are succinctly stated. In every document an effort 
is constantly made to discover whether the idea of the nature of that which 
is to rise, was uniformly held; or whether two, three, or even more con- 
ceptions were current. 

The beginnings of a belief in individual resurrection are found in the 
Old Testament in at least two passages. That death is the end of life but 
not the end of existence was, however, the most common position among 
the Hebrews. At death, it was thought, the shades pass to Sheol where 
they continue in a semiconscious state. Those who have gone thither 
return no more, and none escape it (Job 7:9,10510:21,22). In some psalms 
there is a trace of the thought of eternal life in God in the other world (49 : 15) 
but not of hope for a resurrection. In Psalm 17:15, the phrase, "when I 
awake," does not mean awake from death, but from sleep. There is in 
the Old Testament, for the most part, nothing to look for beyond the grave 
and no hope of a resurrection. 

On the other hand, there arose, in connection with the messianic hopes, 
a belief in the restoration of the nation, in which the dead as well as the 
living Jews were to participate. With this hope the resurrection from 
the dead is logically connected. In its simplest form it was a revival of 
Israel. Many of the religious conceptions which were later appropriated 
to the individual were in the first place altogether national. The resurrec- 
tion was no exception to this general tendency in which the larger unit of 
the nation was gradually displaced by the smaller unit of the individual. 
This appears in those words of Hosea (6:1,2) in which, in a dramatic 
representation in the form of a soliloquy and of a dialogue between Jehovah 
and the people, the people acknowledge their chastisement to be from God, 
and express the conviction that in a short time he will deliver them and that 
they shall live again under his protection. The same is true of Ezekiel's 
vision of the Valley of Dry Bones (37:1-14). The passage is not a literal 
prophecy of the resurrection of the individual persons of the nation, 
dead or slain, but of a resurrection of the nation, whose condition is figura- 
tively expressed and even so avowed when it is said that these bones are 
the whole house of Israel. The first mention of an unmistakable individual 
resurrection is in Isa. 26:19, m which a hope in a resurrection from Sheol 
is clearly expressed through a prayer for the resurrection of individuals. 1 
The writer looks forward to the setting up of the kingdom in the city of 
strength, whose walls and bulwarks are salvation and whose gates will open 
that the righteous nation may enter (26:1,2). And since the nation was 

1 Cf. 26:14, and see Dillmann-Kittel, Der Prophet Jesaje, ad loc. 



JEWISH AND GREEK LITERATURE 3 

hut few in numher the righteous dead shall rise and share the blessedness 
of the regenerate nation. Another definite prophecy of the resurrection 
of the dead is recorded in Dan. 12:2. These words refer to the faithful 
and the apostates of the Maccabean revolt (cf. 11 : 32 ff.). The resurrection 
is to be a resurrection of wicked as well as of righteous Israelites, who, in 
the body, are presented before God for judgment. 

Turning to the apocryphal and apocalyptic literature, first to such as is 
of Palestinian origin, we discover that the idea of the resurrection formed a 
very vital part of the thought of later Judaism. The conception bulks larger 
and is more fully developed than in the Old Testament, being bound up 
with the entire system of eschatology. Statements concerning the character 
of the resurrection are often explicit and sometimes satisfactorily discussed. 
The most significant as well as the earliest of these writings was the Book 
of Enoch (Ethiopic). Through it the resurrection became commonplace 
in Jewish theology; and with the early Fathers it had all the weight of a 
canonical book, being sometimes cited as Scripture. There are at least 
two, if not four parts in the Ethiopic Enoch. The so-called "Similitudes" 
(chaps. 3 7-71), being entirely different from the rest of the book, are com- 
monly assigned to a subsequent author. The resurrection is thus very 
variously conceived in consequence of these different historical layers; and 
the naive as well as the symbolic way of presentation makes interpretation 
extremely difficult. 

In the first part of Enoch the resurrection is conceived to be of all Israel 
save one class of sinners (chap. 22) ; while in a later section the resurrection 
of the righteous alone is attested (90:33). The well-known " Similitudes " 
give testimony to a resurrection, either of all mankind or of Israelites only. 1 
As to the resurrection act itself and the nature of the resurrection body 
there, too, are naturally marked variations. In the oldest section of the 
book the righteous are raised from Sheol in the body, to enjoy a life of 
material prosperity. The messianic kingdom is to be established on a 
purified earth with Jerusalem as its center (25:5); where its members are 
to eat of the tree of life (25:46), and where nature is to be prolific (10:19). 
The resurrection body of the righteous is thought of as having the same 
organs and functions which a mundane body possesses (cf. 25:46; 10:17), 
being virtually a restoration of the former body. The resurrection of the 
wicked is, however, differently conceived. The one class remain in Sheol 
forever; while the members of the other class are simply transferred on the 
great day of judgment from Sheol to everlasting punishment in Gehenna 

1 See Schodde, The Book 0} Enoch, p. 139, for the one view; R. H. Charles, Book 
of Enoch, p. 139, for the other view. 



4 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

(27:2). Whether the writer thought of the resurrection of the wicked as 
that of disembodied spirits (22 : 10,11), or spirits united with bodies so that 
they could be slain (22:13) and visible to the risen righteous (27 : 3), we are 
unable to surmise. Quite another conception of the resurrection is presented 
in the closing chapters of this Ethiopic Enoch. The center of interest is 
shifted from the material world to the spiritual, and the messianic kingdom 
being of short duration is no longer the goal of the hopes of the righteous. 
Heaven is the goal to which the spirits ascend after the final judgment 
(93:4). "The righteous dead will be raised (91:10; 92:3) as spirits 
only (103:3,4) and the portals of the new heaven will be open to them 
(104:2) and they shall joy as the angels (94:4) and become companions 
of the heavenly hosts (94:6) and shine as the stars (94: 2). " x The idea of 
the resurrection in this section does not involve the body, but only the 
spirit. In the "Similitudes," however, the resurrection assumes a firmer 
form and acquires more universal value. "In those days the earth also 
gives back those who are treasured up within it and Sheol will give back 
that which it owes" (51 : 1-3). The nature of this resurrection body is such 
that the risen one can eat and sleep (62:14) in the messianic kingdom in 
which the righteous will live forever. The mention of "garments of glory 
and fight" spoken of in connection with the resurrection body (even if this 
is the correct rendering of a variant text) does not revoke, as some are apt 
to think, the fleshly and materialistic conception of the body. There are 
thus in the Ethiopic Enoch two ideas concerning the character of the resur- 
rection: (1) the resurrection of a material fleshly body; (2) the resurrection 
of the spirit only. 

There is a very gross description of a bodily resurrection in Second Mac- 
cabees. This book surpasses all the earlier writings, not only in the prom- 
inence which it gives to the belief in a resurrection, but also in the enlarged 
form in which this belief is presented. The resurrection is set forth, not 
as a mere opinion, but as a motive and a support for martyrdom. The 
resurrection of the Israelites is to everlasting life (7:9), and their bodies 
are raised in exactly the same form in which they were committed to the 
earth. The writer holds the plainest and most literal conception of the 
resurrection of the body. God will restore the mutilated bodies (7:11; 14: 
46) ; and even blood relationships will continue (7 : 29). There is no belief 
in the doctrine of a natural resurrection. Resurrection comes through 
the miraculous exertion of divine power (7:14). The formation of a 
human being in the womb is paralleled by its re-formation after death and 

1 Quoted from R. H. Charles, op. cit., p. 265. 



JEWISH AND GREEK LITERATURE 5 

dissolution (7 : 22, 23). God's will and ability to do the former gives courage 
to believe that he will and can do the latter. 1 

Turning to the Book of Jubilees we meet again the doctrine of the resur- 
rection of the spirit and the idea of simple immortality, already discerned 
in the Ethiopic Enoch. There is no mention of an intermediate abode, 
and surely it cannot be Sheol since that is conceived of as hell (24: 3). The 
only statement with reference to the resurrection is in 23:31, in which it is 
asserted that the souls of the righteous enjoy a blessed immortality after 
death. Presumably the soul must enter at death into its final destiny. A 
resurrection of the spirit only, and not of the body, is also asserted in the 
Assumption of Moses (10:3-10). A most striking view of the resurrection 
is recorded in the Apocalypse of Baruch. This book is a composite work, 
contemporaneous with New Testament writers. Baruch is represented 
as asking God what the nature of the resurrection body will be (chap. 49) ; 
to which answer is made that the body will be restored in exactly the same 
form in which it was buried, with all the defects and deformities, so that 
there may be a common recognition after death (chap. 50). After such 
recognition the body of the righteous will be transformed and will assume 
a more spiritual nature. There will be a series of successive changes until 
the body is adjusted to the new environment (51 : 3). The body, however, 
will not be so attenuated as to become a nonentity; it will remain a body, 
even though it is spiritually apprehended. Thus in almost the same 
breath the Apocalypse of Baruch presents a material as well as a spiritual 
conception of the risen body. 3 

The nature of the resurrection is, therefore, variously conceived of in 
Palestinian- Jewish literature. Three conceptions were current: (1) a 
bodily resurrection in the material sense, clearly indicated (Eth. En.) and 
taught in the most literal terms (II Mace. ; Apoc. Bar.) ; (2) a resurrection 
of the spirit only, or an incorporeal immortality after judgment (Eth. En. ; 
Jub. ; Ass. Mos.) ; (3) a resurrection of a transformed body, different from 
the mundane body (Apoc. Bar.). 

A preliminary resume of the Greek doctrine of the future life is a very 
important prerequisite to the interpretation and presentation of the idea 
of the resurrection in the ante-Nicene period. Early Christianity, as is 

1 In II Mace. dvda-Taa-is occurs for the first time in the Greek Bible in the sense 
of resurrection. 

2 Though this book runs somewhat parallel to Paul (I Cor. 15:35-50), it cannot 
be declared that Paul was influenced by it, since the main part of the book and the 
section referred to were written after a. d. 70. Withal the position of Baruch is 
fundamentally different from that of Paul. 



6 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

well known, was developed in the environment of Greek life and thought. 
There is thus an a-priori probability that in the formation of the doctrine 
of the resurrection Greek influences were operative. This influence must 
have been both conscious and unconscious, direct and indirect, positive and 
negative. At the time of the Christian era there were still current among 
the Greeks and the Romans the popular beliefs in the Homeric conceptions 
and the ancient mythologies. The sepulchral inscriptions give conclusive 
evidence of this fact. And since Homer was the bible of the Greeks, and 
since the philosophies were beyond the grasp of the people as a whole, 
it is evident that this must have been the case. Now the Homeric doctrine 
of the after-life is inharmonious and irreconcilable at many places. In 
the main, however, it presents us with a doctrine which seems similar 
to the ancient beliefs of the Hebrews. The Homeric poems teach that 
death is not the end of man, but that something survives. This something 
is not a full, real man, but a kind of "an attenuatecl edition of man." 
The part which survives death is called the soul (^x 1 /)* but it is entirely 
different from what we understand as soul. It has no psychological rela- 
tion with the rest of man, even while it is in the body. At death it departs 
to Hades, where it continues without consciousness (//. xxiii. 103, 104), 
and without a possibility of return (//. xxiii. 75, 76). Immortality was 
vouchsafed only to a few favorites of the gods, who were bodily translated 
to the Elysian fields. 

The philosophic view of the future life is, on the other hand, of greater 
moment and more pertinent than the popular thought. There are constant 
allusions in Christian writings to the philosophical views and besides, many 
of the early Christian writers were at one time philosophers and were trained 
in the philosophic systems. The moral philosophies were the religion of 
most of the cultivated people. The foremost of philosophers was Plato — 
decidedly so on the subject of the after-life. He established the doctrine 
of a future life on grounds of reason, independent of tradition. Still he 
had his predecessors who were controlled by a higher idea of the after-life 
than the Homeric conception. The Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries, 
Pythagoras, and Pindar contributed the idea that the soul which survives 
in the other world is soul itself, and no attenuated dead image; that the 
transmigration of souls is necessary; and that the body is a hindrance to 
the soul. 1 

Plato teaches very distinctly the idea of the immortality of the soul, to 
which is attached the doctrine of pre-existence and^the dogma of metempsy- 
chosis. The soul is incarnated, and after the death of the body a judgment 

1 to o-cDjua a-ijfxa in the Orphic mysteries; see Plato, Cratylus, 400. 



JEWISH AND GREEK LITERATURE 7 

awaits it in an intermediate state where penance and discipline and puri- 
fication are possible. There it remains for a thousand years, after which 
it is again reincarnated; and so continuing to persist in successive bodies 
it is finally delivered from the body and departs into the realm of pure 
being. This goal is, however, reached only by those who have purified 
themselves by philosophy and have freed themselves from every taint of 
the body. The idea of a resurrection of the body is contrary to Platonic 
principles. The entire scheme is to get rid of the body and all of its func- 
tions, not to save it. "The soul is divine, immortal, intelligible, uniform, 
indissoluble, unchangeable," but "the body is mortal" (Phaedo, 80); the 
body is the source of endless trouble, and it hinders the soul from the 
acquisition of knowledge (66); purity is attained only by the separation 
of the soul from the body (67); the body is an impediment, a hindrance, 
and the prison of the soul; heaven is reached only in a bodiless condition, 
in which the soul is free from every taint of the body. The doctrine of 
immortality had reached its highest point in Plato, and all subsequent 
writers who dealt with the future life followed in his footsteps. There is 
one variation, however, and it is utilized by the Fathers, viz., the concep- 
tion of the Stoics, who taught that the soul is corporeal and that it survives 
until the world's periodic conflagration. They taught that the entire 
universe is in a continuous flux, that periodically everything is reabsorbed 
into Deity, and that the soul subsists until the next reabsorption and 
conflagration. 

Turning to the Romans we find that there is very little that is Roman 
which is not also Greek. There are only two writers who seriously deal 
with the after-life — Cicero and Virgil. Both of these are used in a few of 
the Latin Fathers. Cicero restates the Platonic doctrine, concluding 
that a soul will either have a happy future or will perish with the body 
(Tusc. Disp. /, 38). Virgil gives both the popular view and also his own 
view, the latter being a reflection of the Platonic ideas of an antagonism 
between body and soul (Aeneid vi, 725 fL). Thus Graeco-Roman thought 
was confined to the immortality of the soul, and consistently so; and the 
resurrection of the body was logically excluded, inasmuch as flesh and 
matter were conceived of as morally weak. 

In the Alexandrian Jewish literature, there is a repetition of the doc- 
trine of the immortality of the soul. In Alexandria, where the Jewish 
and Greek ideas were welded together, the conception of the after-life 
fell on the Greek rather than on the Jewish side. Nowhere is there an 
attestation of the resurrection of the body. In the Wisdom of Solomon 
the doctrine of an individual immortality beyond the grave is set forth 



8 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

(2:23; 8:17; 15:3). The psychology of the author is dualistic. The soul 
of man is pre-existent, and the body is treated as a mere receptacle (8 : 20) ; 
the body is only an " earthly tabernacle" for the soul (9:15); the body falls 
to the dust and never rises. This idea is brought out still more clearly 
in Philo, the classic example of Jewish Alexandrian theology. A personal 
immortality is clearly recognized; while a resurrection of the body and a 
judgment and an intermediate abode find no place. At death the soul 
enters into its final state, which at once sets aside the idea of a resurrection. 
His conception of matter, likewise, repudiates any conception of a bodily 
resurrection. Thus it is stated that the body is made out of matter and 
matter is incurably evil; that life in the body is death and death real life; 
that the body is the "utterly polluted prison" of the soul (De Migr. Abr., 
II) ; that it is the corpse which the soul drags with it, the clog which hinders 
the spirit. The writer of Fourth Maccabees, "a dilettante in philosophies," 
believing only in a blessed immortality of the soul, thrusts aside any inti- 
mation of a resurrection of the body (13:16; 15:2; 18:23). This is the more 
remarkable since the discourse is founded on II Mace, which takes a very 
literal view of the resurrection. The Slavonic Enoch, or the Book of the 
Secrets of Enoch, standing in a class by itself, uses a collocation of words 
which do not lend themselves to definite interpretation (22:8-10). 

Thus Hellenistic Judaism consistently held to a conception of mere 
personal immortality, and is a good illustration of the positive effect of 
Greek thought on the Jewish idea of the resurrection. This conception 
was confined almost exclusively to Alexandria, while the conception of the 
rehabilitation of the body was indigenous to Palestinian soil. This 
latter — the restoration of the former body — had gained wide currency and 
was a common property of the Pharisees and the common people, as is 
evident from Josephus, the New Testament, and the Talmud. Indeed, 
it was the atmosphere in which the Christian idea of the resurrection 
was born. 



CHAPTER II 

THE NEW TESTAMENT 

In entering upon a study of the New Testament we are mainly inter- 
ested to know whether there is a single view of the nature of the resurrection 
or whether testimony is given to two or even three conceptions. Inasmuch 
as we found through a genetic study of the literature of Judaism that there 
were current, at least, three possible conceptions of the nature of the resur- 
rection, it is meet to inquire whether there is variation of idea in the New 
Testament books also, or uniformity. A careful study of Jesus, of Paul, 
and of the writers of the four gospels furnishes us with the desired informa- 
tion. In general, Jesus says very little — less perhaps than we should have 
expected — on the nature of the resurrection. However, the resurrection is 
affirmed in his reply to the cavil of the Sadducees, and the account is given 
by the three Synoptists (Mark 12:18-27 and parallels). That Mark 
contains the earlier tradition is evident, not merely from the general con- 
clusion to which scholarship has come on the Synoptic problem as a whole, 
but also from the abrupt and uncouth form in which this Markan narrative 
is cast. The Sadducees present what was seemingly an imaginary case, 
and no doubt one of their standing questions — of the effect of levirate 
marriage on the after-life. To this question Jesus makes answer; and in 
his answer there are three aspects which bear, either directly or indirectly, 
on the subject. 

The purport of the question of the Sadducees and the import of Jesus' 
answer give an implicit testimony. Jesus does not answer the question put 
to him, but deals with the presumption out of which the question sprang. 
Was that presumption the denial of the resurrection of the body, or rather 
the denial of the persistence of life after death ? If only the former, then the 
purpose of the argument of Jesus was simply to indicate to the Sadducees 
that there is a resurrection of the body in the material sense. If, however, 
the presumption of the question was a denial of a spiritual personality after 
death, rather than of a resurrection of the body, then the answer of Jesus has 
pertinency only if directed to this denial. Now a knowledge of the tenets 
of the Sadducees, apart from our immediate passage, reveals the fact that 
they denied not merely the resurrection of the body, but more fundamen- 
tally the soul's immortality. Josephus' representation is undoubtedly correct 
when he says that they maintain that the soul perishes with the body 

9 



IO IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

(Ant., xviii. i ; War, ii. 8: 14). This is also in harmony with Acts 23:8, in 
which it is asserted that they deny a world of supermundane spirits. And 
from the very history of the Sadducees one infers that they were wholly 
concerned with materialistic interests, so that spiritual realities had little 
meaning for them. From this standpoint it is therefore evident that 
Jesus must have set himself to the task primarily of showing the continuity 
of life, rather than of arguing the resurrection of a material body. 

After all, Jesus seems to give some hint as to the nature of the resurrec- 
tion in this passage when he says that in the resurrection "they neither 
marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels in heaven." It is 
evident from this that the future life is not to be one of sense-life, in which 
men exist with the same forms of intercourse occasioned by man's sensuous 
nature. Jesus repudiates very strongly the idea of the earthly sensuous 
character of the future life. However, the exact nature of the future exist- 
ence of men is not, by this expression, definitely indicated. In the analogy 
of the heavenly state of angels (eto-tv ws ayyeXot iv rois ovpavois) there 
is something a little more tangible, but still nothing absolutely definite. 
Angels, like demons and spirits, are usually conceived of as immaterial 
beings, having a self-conscious, self-directing individuality. Jesus prob- 
ably intended the simile to be taken at its full value. If so, he intended to 
give a distinctly spiritual meaning to the resurrection. Furthermore, it 
is worth noticing that this reply of Jesus tallies with the description in the 
latter part of Ethiopic Enoch, where there is to be a resurrection, but a 
resurrection of the spirit alone; in which the risen righteous are to rejoice 
"as the angels of heaven" (104:4), being companions of the "heavenly 
hosts" (104:6). Hence it is most probable that Jesus intended to deny 
the physical and affirm only the spiritual nature of the after-life. 

The argument which Jesus draws from Scripture, in his answer, has 
reference only to a spiritual resumption of the activities of life after death 
(Mark 12 : 26, 27). Jesus shows conclusively that the view of the Sadducees 
is inconsistent with the very Scripture to which they hold. If God, he argues, 
is really the God of the patriarchs, then they are in fellowship with him, 
and that fellowship cannot be broken by death; it is continuous, and con- 
sequently life must be continuous. Commentators often have made the 
argument to hinge on the use of the present instead of the past tense in the 
words, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God 
of Jacob," thereby showing that the patriarchs who were buried centuries 
before Moses must still have been living when God spoke these words to him. 
But the argument for the survival of human personality strikes deeper, 
for it is inferred from the nature of God himself. Those who are morally 



THE NEW TESTAMENT II 

and religiously bound up with him now are in a life-giving and eternal 
fellowship with him; he who lives for God and with God lives forever. In 
this aspect of Jesus' answer to the Sadducees there is no support of the idea 
of a restitution of the body; but only of a survival of the spirit after death and 
of a blessed fellowship with God. The term " resurrection " has acquired, 
in the thought of Jesus, the content of immortality. No room is even left 
for an awakening of the soul from an intermediate abode and its transference 
therefrom to another place, where some kind of a body will be given to it. 
Jesus tacitly assumed that the resurrection begins with death and that the 
patriarchs were living the resurrection life fully and completely. There is 
no room for a point of time in the history of the after-life when a soul will 
be united with its former body and live a completer life. 

The other teachings of Jesus are in perfect harmony with his answer to 
the Sadducees. In the Fourth Gospel, in a stratum coming probably from 
the hand of John himself, 1 is an expression which is in absolute harmony 
with the Synoptists. Jesus says to Mary who had the current conception 
of the resurrection, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on 
me, though he die, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth on 
me shall never die" (John n : 25, 26) : meaning thereby that he is the source 
and embodiment of the resurrection, and that he who gives himself up 
to him will survive after death. The argument is parallel to that of the 
Synoptics — the only change being a substitution of Jesus for God. In the 
Synoptics, Jesus says in substance, He who lives in God and for God lives 
forever; in the Gospel of John, he says, He who lives in me and for me lives 
forever. On the other hand, there are a few references, not directly to the 
resurrection, but to some phase of the after-life which seem to imply a bodily 
resurrection; but a critical study of each passage invariably leads to the 
foregone conclusion. Jesus spoke of eating and drinking in the future 
kingdom of God (Luke 13:29); but the terms are used figuratively "to 
express a blissful enjoyment in fellowship with others." Our Lord's words 
about Lazarus in Abraham's bosom and the rich man in Hades occur in 
a parable, and, being incidental rather than vital to the central purpose of 
the parable, cannot be charged with doctrinal meaning (Luke 16:19-31). 
The apocalyptic passages attributed to Jesus are colored by ideas which 
were current and operative during the period of gospel-making. The 
" Great Apocalypse" (Mark, chap. 13 and parallels) is of a composite 
character and presents conflicting views. It may safely be assumed that 
this apocalypse was not spoken by Christ in the form in which it appears in 
our present gospels; but that it is a Christian adaptation of an original 

1 See Wendt, The Gospel according to St. John, 153-58. 



12 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

Jewish work written during the trouble preceding the fall of Jerusalem, 
or a report of Jesus' words colored by Jewish ideas. 1 Furthermore, what 
Jesus taught concerning the future state of men, he also predicted concerning 
himself. To rise again after three days was a Hebraistic way of saying in 
a short time (cf. Hos. 6:2); and by this expression Jesus simply conveyed 
the idea that immediately after his death he would continue to live as a 
self -directing personality. In short, Jesus read into the Jewish resurrection 
— a term which was forced upon his lips — nothing more than the survival 
and continuance of human personality on its spiritual side. 

In turning from the teachings of Jesus to the writings of Paul, we are 
confronted with another conception of the resurrection, which is seemingly 
different — though not vitally so — from that of Jesus. Few conceptions 
received such elaborate treatment at the hands of Paul as that of the resur- 
rection. His whole interest in eschatology is centered in the resurrection. 
Yet in spite of all this elaboration and emphasis, there is perhaps no province 
in which more room is left for the raising of perplexing questions. The 
two classic passages on the subject of the resurrection are I Cor., chap. 15 
and II Cor., chap. 5; in the former of these the subject is systematically 
discussed. In Corinth the resurrection was questioned and denied by some 
Christians. The opposition to the idea was undoubtedly due to a Hellen- 
istic dualism indigenous to Corinth itself. The portrayal in Acts of the 
opposition to the resurrection encountered at Athens is also in a measure 
applicable to Corinth. The Corinthians must have misconceived the 
nature of the resurrection body, and presumably overemphasized the mate- 
rialistic conception, which caused certain ones to deny it altogether. 

The resurrection of Jesus, in the thought of Paul, was significant in its 
relation both to justification and to the resurrection of believers. For him 
the resurrection of Jesus was the miracle par excellence, and the proof of 
his divine mission. If Christ, he says, is not raised then all faith is in vain 
and we are still in our sins; Christ was raised for our justification (I Cor. 
15:16-18). The resurrection of Jesus is also a sure pledge of our own 
resurrection; and the hope of our resurrection rests on the assured fact of 
Christ's resurrection. The apostle draws a close analogy between the 
resurrection of Jesus and that of men. The resurrection of both is either 
affirmed or denied, so that what is true of the one must also be true of the 
other. If men do not rise then Christ did not rise, and vice versa. There 
is also no difference between the resurrection bodies of either, save that 
Jesus is the first-fruit. Inasmuch as the first-fruit is like the harvest, it 

1 This view has the support of such authorities as Weizsacker, Wendt, H. J. Holtz- 
mann, Baldensperger, Bousset, Charles, and others. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT 1 3 

thus follows that whatever Paul conceived to be the nature of the resurrec- 
tion of the one, he must also have held with reference to the other. 

The nature of the resurrection body of Jesus is not explicitly described, 
nevertheless its nature can easily be inferred. The empty tomb was to 
Paul a secondary matter and of second-hand information, if, indeed, he 
knew of it at all. Christ had appeared to him in his risen form and that 
appearance gave him the conception which he expressed in the phrase a 
''spiritual body." In the catalogue of appearances (I Cor. 15: 1-15) there 
is nothing to give one the impression that the resurrection of Jesus was a 
revivification of his former body; but an opposite impression is rather 
formed. Paul says nothing of a body which could be touched and handled, 
and which bore the marks of a crucifixion. He is silent with reference to all 
this, not because he does not like to think about it, but because he never 
saw anything of the kind. The risen Jesus which he saw was not clothed 
in his former earthly body. And, in addition, Paul's language describing 
the resurrection of Jesus does not contain the phrase "resurrection of the 
body," but the expression "resurrection of the dead," meaning thereby 
a resurrection from the under-world. 

Paul's conception of the resurrection body is brought out more com- 
prehensively, however, in his general treatment of the future resurrection 
of men. We are interested to know what he thought was both the nature 
and the origin of this resurrection body. The two ideas are inseparable and 
not systematically stated, and accordingly there has been room for various 
and conflicting opinions. In the first place, it is obvious that he teaches 
that the resurrection body is to be different from this present earthly body. 
The material substance of the mundane life can have no place in the life 
beyond the grave. It is distinctly stated that "flesh and blood cannot 
inherit the kingdom of God" (I Cor. 15:50). The word "flesh" is not 
used in an ethical sense; but, in connection with the word "blood," refers 
to an animal body (cf. also I Cor. 15:39). As we are we cannot inherit 
eternal life; since it is not the material properties of our body which endure 
forever; for they are subject to corruption and dissolution. In contrast 
with the present body the resurrection body is "spiritual," "heavenly," 
"eternal," and "not made with hands." The apostle recognizes variations 
and different forms of bodily life. "All flesh is not the same flesh; but 
there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another of birds, 
and another of fishes" (I Cor. 15:39). Then he continues by asserting 
that similar variations run through the heavenly bodies. In addition those 
living at the Parousia will meet the Lord, not with their earthly bodies, 
but with bodies that have been changed (I Thess. 4:17; I Cor. 15:51-54; 
II Cor. 5:4). 



14 II>EA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

Paul's characteristic way of denning the future state is by the term 
" spiritual body" (o-aijua irvzvfxa tlkov) ; and this is original with him. Con- 
sequently in finding the meaning of the expression, no appeal can be made 
to classical or pre-Pauline literature, but reliance must be placed solely on 
Paul himself. On the surface, the expression seems self-contradictory; 
which may be due to the fact that in the term are crystallized two distinct 
ideas. It seems evident that the expression "spiritual body" has reference 
to an organism controlled by the Spirit or spirit — the two ideas being 
interchangeable — and also that the organism thus controlled is other than 
pure spirit. In contrast with the psychical body which is animated by the 
sensuous and perishable life as its determining element, the spiritual body 
will be animated by the supersensuous and imperishable life which the 
Spirit imparts and sustains. 

This spiritual or resurrection body, he asserts, does not develop out of 
the former mundane body, save perhaps in the case of those still living 
at the Parousia (cf. I Cor. 15 : 51-54; II Cor. 5:4). The analogy of the seed 
and the plant is purely analogical, and must not be unduly pressed. As a 
scientific fact seed and plant stand in a genetic relationship. The seed — 
for in it is the germ of life — when placed in its proper environment produces 
the plant. But Paul did not use this illustration to set forth a principle of 
spiritual biology. He simply reflects the Hebrew idea respecting the sov- 
ereign power of God. "God giveth it a body according as he willeth" 
(KaOios rjOeXrjaev). "The aorist tense denotes the final act of God's will 
determining the constitution of nature." All changes in history and life? 
according to the Hebrews, were the direct work of God, apart from second- 
ary causes. No theory as to the origin of the new body can be found in 
this analogy. Paul did not teach that there is a seed in the old body, or the 
old body is itself the seed, out of which the new body genetically grows and 
develops; neither did he teach the metamorphosis of an earthly body into a 
heavenly. 

The real origin of the resurrection body is attributed to the direct act 
of God, who "willeth" to give each soul a body at the time of the Parousia. 
In II Cor. 5:1-11 it is clearly indicated that when death ensues the souls 
will be left "naked," that is, bodiless; but that proleptically they already 
possess a body in heaven — "a house not made with hands" — with which 
they will be "clothed upon" on the resurrection day. 1 While the origin 
of the resurrection body is usually referred to the fiat of God, it is also 

1 There are some scholars (e. g., Reuss, Holtzmann, Pfleiderer, Cone, Clemen, 
Schmiedel, etc.) who interpret this passage quite differently, asserting that, in the 
interval between I and II Cor., Paul changed his view on the resurrection. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT 1 5 

sometimes spoken of as the work of the Spirit which dwells in the believer 
which Spirit gathers to itself such elements that it will finally form a new 
organism. In other words, the new life in the believer will have the power 
to create and assimilate an organism conforming to the new conditions. 
It seems that when Paul is controlled by the ethical, rather than the eschato- 
logical, side he prefers to speak of the genesis of the spiritual body in this 
way (cf. also Rom. Sin). 1 

Since this spiritual body, as we have seen, is neither this present mundane 
form, nor a metamorphosis or volatilization of it, but a new organism 
imparted either indirectly by the new life working in the believer, or directly 
by God, it yet remains to ask what exactly is the nature of this organism. 
It is, after all, a body, an organism, and not equivalent merely to a spirit. 
It is perfectly adapted to the spirit's activity under the new conditions. It 
is ethereal, subtle, sublimated, having, probably, some of the properties 
of what we call matter. We may not have a term in our scientific nomen- 
clature of things material and things spiritual whereby we can designate 
in exact terms the nature of this resurrection body which Paul chooses to 
call a "spiritual body." 

Does Paul's conception differ from that of Jesus ? It does, no doubt, 
in appearance and at first sight, but not in reality. There is really no 
vital difference between the two conceptions. Jesus said nothing of a 
spiritual body which is to be given at some time to the soul, or which the 
new life creates for itself; although this may not be altogether excluded 
from his thought. Both, however, agree in this, that they put the emphasis 
on the continuity of life on its spiritual side. Resurrection to both meant, 
not the rehabilitation of the flesh, but the permanent release from it. 

In turning to the Gospel writers we meet another idea of the resurrection. 
In general, they portray a resurrection of the body in which the former 
substance is reanimated and the former life lived. This seems to be the 
prevailing conception of the risen body of Jesus as they describe it, although 
it is by no means consistently held. In fact, some resurrection narra- 
tives, particularly those imbedded in the earliest strata, imply a spiritual 
body such as Paul has described; while others, especially those appearing 
in the later gospels, set forth in bold relief a material conception of the 
risen body; and, indeed, in some of the accounts the material and the 
spiritual conceptions overlap. 

Thus in the lost conclusion of Mark 2 — preserved in Matt. 28:8-10, 

1 Kennedy, Charles, and others interpret also I Cor. 15:42-49 in accordance with 
this view. 

2 For a discussion of this, see E. J. Goodspeed, "The Lost Conclusion of Mark," 
American Journal of Theology, Vol. IX, pp. 484-90 (1905). 



1 6 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

16-19 — there is described a resurrection appearance of a body which is 
purely spiritual. The disciples, it is narrated, were gathered together on 
a mount, and all at once Jesus appeared and spoke to them. Like Paul's, 
this description of the risen Christ is characterized by an absence of the 
grotesque and the materialistic conceptions of eating and handling. On 
the other hand, an unmistakable bodily presence of Jesus is manifested in 
the later traditions, especially that which has been preserved in Luke and 
John. Here the risen Jesus is represented as sitting down to meat, taking 
bread and blessing it, and giving it to his disciples. It is even stated that 
he took a piece of broiled fish and ate it in their presence (Luke 24:42, 43). 
The material and fleshly conception of the risen Lord comes out still more 
strikingly in the fact that he showed the prints in his hands and feet, and 
that he bade his disciples handle and touch him (Luke 24:39, 40; John 
20: 27). The risen Jesus, to indicate that his appearance was in his former 
body, is represented as saying: " Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not 
flesh and bones, as ye behold me having " (Luke 24: 39). In some of the nar- 
ratives even a third phenomenon presents itself. Here Jesus instantaneously 
transports himself from place to place, passes through closed doors, is 
impalpable, and yet, withal, displays his wounds and challenges those present 
to touch him (John 20:19-23, 26-29). Two ill-according elements are 
manifestly present — the one predicating a material organism, the other a 
spiritual. Such incongruity is undoubtedly the result of two traditions, 
or two conceptions of the risen body, which were not, and, in fact, could 
not be, reconciled. Hence the overlapping of the two ideas — the one repre- 
sented in its purity by Paul, and the other seen in its final development in 
the extra-canonical gospels. The appendix to the Gospel of John portrays 
with a great deal more consistency a material body than the rest of the 
gospel. Jesus is described as building a fire, preparing a meal, and sitting 
down to eat with his disciples (John 21 : 1-14). 

In the narrative of the empty sepulcher the conception of a reinstate- 
ment, if not a resuscitation, of the former body is obvious. The tomb is 
found empty on the morning of the third day, the stone is rolled away, and 
an angel or angels announce that Christ is no longer in the grave but risen. 
Inharmonious as it is, even Mark and Matthew, who suggest only a spirit- 
ual body in the appearances, record the tradition of the open grave. There 
is a consistency between an empty tomb and a realistic corporeal risen 
body, but an inconsistency between an empty tomb and a spiritual body. 
In Luke and John the realism is brought out still more vividly, in the fact 
that the tomb is entered and that the linen clothes in which Jesus was 
wrapped are seen. Therefore, even though the gospels give traces of the 



THE NEW TESTAMENT 17 

two ideas, of a spiritual and a material resurrection of Jesus, nevertheless 
the latter remains the predominant and prevailing type, especially so in 
John and Luke. 

The remaining New Testament books make no contribution to the 
nature of the resurrection thus far discussed. With the exception of the 
Johannine writings and the Epistle to the Hebrews, a resurrection of the 
body is explicitly avowed or tacitly assumed. In the Johannine writings 
there seems to be an attestation of a spiritual as well as a mechanical 
and bodily conception; while in Hebrews it is uncertain whether the resur- 
rection is a resurrection of the spirit or a resurrection of the body. 

The extra-canonical gospels, which exerted a direct and indirect influ- 
ence upon the Fathers, adhere consistently to a resuscitation of a mundane 
body. In the Gospel according to the Hebrews the account of the empty 
tomb and the post-resurrection life of Jesus is set forth more vividly and 
realistically than it was in any of the canonical gospels. The same holds 
true of the Gospel of Peter; only here the body of Jesus assumes some 
kind of a transcendental form, reaching from earth to heaven, and even 
beyond heaven. 

There is thus in the New Testament literature a confirmation of two 
sharply defined conceptions of the nature of the resurrection body: (1) the 
one is a bodily resurrection in the material sense, most clearly attested in 
the resurrection narratives of Luke and John; (2) the other is a purely spirit- 
ual resurrection, and a permanent release from the flesh, clearly attested by 
Jesus and Paul. In a further analysis of the latter conception of a purely 
spiritual resurrection two ideas are also distinguishable: (a) the one is a 
resurrection of the " naked" soul, which will be clothed upon with a 
heavenly body, taught by Paul; (b) the other is the continued life of the 
soul beyond the grave without the addition of a heavenly body at some 
period in the after-life, taught by Jesus. 



CHAPTER III 

THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS 

Having described the various Jewish and New Testament ideas of the 
resurrection, let us now turn to trace the development of thought in the 
ante-Nicene Christian literature. Here we are interested to know how 
the resurrection was approached; how Scripture was interpreted and used; 
and what arguments were employed in substantiation of the ideas that were 
held. Then we also wish to know what place the resurrection held in each 
particular writer and what purpose it served — whether it was a fundamental 
or a secondary consideration, and whether it was purely theological and 
apologetic. But especially do we desire to know what the precise character 
of the resurrection in each case was — whether the term " resurrection" was 
equivalent to personal immortality; whether there was a risen body, and 
if so, whether it was the former body, or a different body; and again, whether 
a writer held to one idea consistently, or whether two or even more ideas were 
sometimes overlaid or welded together. 

Clement 1 of Rome stands out as the first among the apostolic Fathers. 
His epistle to the Corinthians is the only Christian monument of the first 
century not included in the New Testament canon. His discussion of the 
resurrection is very singular, and yet also very simple (chaps. 24-27). He 
affirms that God will effect a resurrection in the case of man as he has done 
in the case of Jesus. God has given an assurance of the resurrection from 
the very works of nature. Day comes forth from the grave of the night, 
and out of the decayed seed comes forth the plant and the fruit. But the 
unique analogy is that of the phoenix. This bird is the only one of its 
kind and lives for five hundred years, after which it enters into a coffin, 
which it has built, and dies; and "as the flesh rotteth, a certain worm is 
engendered which is nurtured from the moisture of the dead creature, and 
putteth forth wings;" and so the new creature completes a cycle of another 
five hundred years. But in addition to this marvelous sign of a resurrec- 
tion, there is also the testimony from Scripture, in which God has given us 
the promise of a resurrection (Ps. 3:6; 23:4; Job 19:26). 

It is evident that the characteristic argument of Clement for the resurrec- 
tion is the argument from analogy. For this he is undoubtedly indebted in 
part to Paul; for he uses both the illustration of the seed (24:4, 5), and the 

1 No effort is made to be strictly chronological; similar ideas and influences have 
been often grouped together. 

18 



THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS 1 9 

expression the "first-fruit. " To this he adds two original analogies: one in 
reference to day and night, the other in reference to the phoenix. This bird 
had been mentioned in literature before, but Clement is the first Christian 
who both uses the story and applies it to the resurrection. The second argu- 
ment is the argument from the Old Testament. He finds the promise of the 
resurrection in two passages in the Old Testament, which, as a matter of 
fact — correctly interpreted — do not, in the least, refer to a resurrection. It 
is also important to observe the constant stress which the writer lays on 
divine providence and power through which alone the resurrection can be 
accomplished (cf. 24:1,5; 26:1; 27:1-3). At the same time he teaches 
that there is a resurrection of those only "who have served him with holiness 
in the assurance of a good faith." 

What now is the precise nature of the resurrection body as conceived 
by Clement ? Since he makes use of the fifteenth chapter of Paul's first 
letter to the Corinthians, it might naturally be inferred that he conceived 
the risen body to be a spiritual one; but in spite of Pauline allusions and 
expressions, he seems to have misunderstood Paul entirely. A resurrection 
of the material body is consistently maintained throughout Clement's 
epistle. The analogy of the seed may not be conclusive evidence, but it 
is interesting to note that the purpose of the analogy is different from Paul's. 
In Paul's epistle the illustration of the seed is primarily used to show the 
sovereign power of God; and it is distinctly said that the body that is raised 
is not that which is buried, nor of the same kind; while in Clement's the 
main purpose of the illustration is to show that out of the decay of the seed 
comes forth the plant and the fruit. This is also more evident in the repre- 
sentation of the symbol of the phoenix, wherein the new creature arises out 
of the decaying and dissolving body of the old creature; and singularly 
enough, the new body is exactly like the old — with flesh and blood. In 
a passage from Job, he states more clearly still his position with reference 
to the character of the resurrection. As quoted by Clement it reads, "And 
thou shalt raise this my flesh which hath endured all these things." 1 Here 
he seems to imply an actual restoration of the flesh in the after-life. It is 
not simply "the flesh" of which he speaks but "this my flesh." More 
significant still, the word "flesh" does not, in this passage, occur in the 
Septuagint; 2 and it is probable that the change is due to Clement himself. 
The resurrection is thus a resurrection of the flesh — a material organism — 
and not a resurrection in the Pauline sense. 

1 Clemens Romanus 26:3, quoted, in the main, from Job 19:26: Kal avao-rriireis 
tt\v <rdpKa [xov ravrrjv ttjv avavT\r}<ra<rav ravra irdvra. 
a A reads <rcD/xa, but X and B read d^p/xa. 



20 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

Similarly the resurrection of Jesus is suggested as having also been in the 
physical form. Clement refers to the fact that the apostles became fully 
assured of the resurrection of Jesus (42:3), but says nothing, in this con- 
nection, of the nature of that resurrection. However, when Christ is called 
the "first-fruit" of the resurrection the implication demands that his must 
have been like that of the harvest; that is, like the resurrection of men, 
whose resurrection is described. 

Ignatius 1 constantly refers to the resurrection without exhaustively treat- 
ing the subject in any particular passage. His epistle to the Smyrneans, 
however, presents the most material and the most interesting matter. But the 
idea of the resurrection bulks larger in his thought than the space which he 
gives to it would indicate. It was with him as with Paul the all-important 
fact in the life of Jesus. Ignatius, as distinguished from Clement who 
dealt only with the resurrection of men, deals with the resurrection of 
Jesus almost exclusively. The importance attached to the resurrection 
is indicated in Smyr. 1:2, where he asserts that the purpose of the crucifixion 
was to bring about the resurrection, so that God might raise up an ensign 
to gather in all the nations. 2 

The appeal of Ignatius, in the setting forth of the resurrection, is to a 
historical fact, and to the consequences and inconsistencies which follow 
if that fact is denied. The fact, of course, which he has in mind is the 
resurrection of the actual flesh of Jesus. It must be borne in mind also 
that his whole purpose in dealing with the resurrection is to repudiate 
Docetism, which denied the reality of the flesh. The Docetists did not 
deny a spiritual resurrection, but a corporeal resurrection. The watch- 
word against Docetism was "truly" (aXrjdws), which is used with reference 
to the resurrection in Tral. 9:2, Magn. chap, n, Smyr. chap. 2. To the 
same category belong those stereotyped phrases describing Christ's career 
— the birth, the passion, the resurrection — which later found their way 
into the Apostles' Creed. He who denies the reality and resurrection of 
the flesh of Christ forfeits his own immortality (Smyr. 5:2), is unreal and 
visionary (Smyr. 2), and makes the Eucharist ineffective (Smyr. 6:2). 
Indeed, Ignatius is the first writer indicating a relation between the resur- 
rection of Christ's flesh and the Eucharist. 

1 Interpreted from the shorter Greek form. The longer Greek form is a later 
expansion. For a characteristic treatment of the resurrection in this later form, see 
Tral. 9. 

2 Aprj <Tv<raTjfxov. Cf. Isa. 49:22; 62:10, where LXX reads atpeiv <ri<r<n)fj.ov to 
describe the raising of Jehovah's standard in Jerusalem, about which men should 
rally from all parts of the earth. 



THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS 21 

The precise character of this risen body and the source which influenced 
Ignatius is set forth in Smyr. chap. 3; "For I know and believe that he was 
[is] in the flesh even after the resurrection. And when he came to Peter 
and his company, he said to them, Lay hold and handle me, and see that 
I am not a demon without body [incorporeal spirit]. And straightway they 
touched him and they believed, being joined unto his flesh and his blood. 
.... And after his resurrection he ate with them and drank with them 
as one in the flesh, though spiritually he was united with the Father.' I 
Ignatius teaches, through the use of the present participle (oi/ra), that 
Jesus while in heaven is in the flesh, even at the time of his writing; he knows 
and believes this. Incarnation he held continued to persist, not merely 
after the resurrection, but also after the ascension. This implies that 
the pre-ascension and the post-ascension body of the risen Christ were the 
same. The evangelists give the reader the general impression that the 
risen body of Christ assumed a spiritual form at the ascension. This, 
as we have seen in the former chapter, is undoubtedly due to incongruous 
elements in the narrative: the one a tradition which predicates a spiritual 
body, the other a belief in a material body. But in Ignatius only one idea 
is held, and that consistently. The account of the post-resurrection experi- 
ence in Smyr. 3 plainly conveys a reference to the incident in Luke 24 : 36 ff. 
The words, however, by which it is described are so decidedly different 
that another source is suggested which doubtless is the Gospel according 
to the Hebrews. 2 The emphasis is vigorously laid on a fleshly resurrection. 
Incorporeal spirit (Sia/Wiov da-wfiarov), in spite of Origen's interpretation 
as referring to some subtle substance, is taken by Ignatius to refer to a 
gross material organism. In Luke 36:40 the wounds are not touched, 
but in Smyr. chap. 3, they are touched, and the strongest possible expression 
is chosen to express the closeness of contact (KpaOevres) . That which is 
touched is flesh and blood, i. e., the corporeal part of man. Jesus is also 
represented as eating and drinking with his disciples as one in the flesh 
(w5 vapKLKos). The drinking is a new feature, and may have been inserted 
to give added force to what might be characterized as a resuscitated body. 

1 E7W yap Kai fxera ttjv avacrraviv iv aaptd avrbv oida Kal iriareiju) dura, Kal 6Ve 
irpds irepl Hirpov ijXSev, i(p-r\ aureus- Xd/Sere, \f/Tj\a<p-q<TaT^ /jlc Kal tdere, 6tl ovk dpi 8iap.6- 
viov faj<bp.a.Tov. Kal evdiis avTod ^avro Kal iirlcrrevaav, Kpadtvres rrj vapid avrov Kal Tip 

irveupjxTL piera 8Z ttjv apdaraaiv cvvtcpayev aureus Kal avviiriev ws <rapKU<bs, Kaiirep 

Trvevp-aTinCos i]V(i)p.£vos rep iraTpi. 

2 Eusebius (H. E. III. 36: 11) confesses that he does not know from what source 
this incident was taken; Jerome (Vir. III. 16), states that it was taken from the Gospel 
according to the Hebrews; Origen (De Prin., Preface 8) quotes it as taken from the 
Tlirpoxj K-qpvyp.a. 



22 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

Ignatius also uses the expression "he raised himself" (Smyr. chap. 2), 
which is a decided advance upon New Testament doctrine. In the New 
Testament, Christ is always said to be raised by the Father, but in this 
epistle he is conceived of as rising by his self-power and will. However, 
this idea is not consistently held; 1 for in the same epistle the doctrine is 
stated in the scriptural way (Smyr. 7:1; cf. Tral. 9:2). Again, as is the 
resurrection of Jesus so is also the resurrection of men (Tral. 9:2). It is 
an honorable thing to keep the flesh holy, since it belongs to the Lord 
(Poly. 5:2); and if it is the Lord's, then it will not be destroyed but will 
rise again. 

The characteristic features of Ignatius' thought about the resurrection 
are: (1) the constant insistence on a resurrection of the flesh in a gross 
material form, even to the extent of asserting that Jesus is still in the flesh 
after the ascension, and that he had been actually touched; (2) the validity 
of the Eucharist if the resurrection of the flesh is true, but its invalidity 
if the resurrection is merely spiritual; (3) the doctrine that Jesus raised 
himself: (4) a strenuous opposition to Docetism with reference to the idea 
of the flesh and the resurrection; (5) the dependence on the Gospel accord- 
ing to the Hebrews. 

Polycarp, in his epistle to the Philippians, makes not a few allusions 
to New Testament passages bearing on the subject of the resurrection. 
Scripture is used and quoted in a formal way, and those familiar passages 
on the resurrection, in Acts and the epistles, are not woven into the texture 
of his thought; nevertheless, the New Testament and its truth are referred 
to as "the oracles of the Lord" (to Aoyta rov Kvpiov, 7:1), in the words* 
"And whosoever shall pervert the oracles of the Lord to his own lust and 
say there is neither resurrection nor judgment, that man is the first-born of 
Satan." The same Docetic teachers — who believe in the resurrection of the 
spirit, but not in that of the body — whom Ignatius attacked are here referred 
to. Hence the expressions in which Polycarp conveys his strong protest 
must have reference to the resurrection of some kind of a body, presumably 
a material organism. 

In the document known as the Martyrdom of Polycarp the resurrection 
of the material body is maintained for martyrs, which is described as a 
"resurrection unto eternal life both of soul and body." 

Barnabas furnishes us only with fragmentary 7 references on the resurrec- 
tion. In regard to Jesus he says that he rose, manifested himself, and 
ascended on the same day (i5:9): 2 "Wherefore also we keep the eighth 

1 The change was felt by later readers and transcribers, so that an interpolater 
substituted avearri for avzaT-qaev iavrov. 

2 The punctuation of Dressel puts the ascension on another day. 



THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS 23 

day for rejoicing in the which also Jesus arose from the dead, and having 
been manifested ascended into heaven." The order of events and the 
ascension on the same day as the resurrection is in harmony with the Gospel 
of Peter, but there is no hint that this gospel was used or exerted any influ- 
ence. Nothing is said bearing on the nature of the risen body. In 5:6 
it is stated that "he himself endured that he might destroy death and show 
forth the resurrection of the dead, for that he must needs be manifested in 
the flesh." The manifestation of Jesus in the flesh has reference to his 
incarnation, and does not give us any clue to his conception of the nature 
of the resurrection body. 

The Didache, Papias, and the Elders approach the resurrection more 
or less from the standpoint of messianism and the apocalyptic ideas. In 
all of them there is a very realistic and gross conception of the risen body, 
both of Jesus and of men, during a millennium reign. In the Didache 
resurrection, judgment, and the second coming are bound together in one 
act. The Lord will come in the clouds, the heavens will be rent, the trumpets 
will blow, and the dead saints will arise (16:6-8). The writings of Papias 
are no longer extant, and we must rely on fragments of his writings and 
scanty notices of his theological opinions in other writers. It is said by 
Jerome that he promulgated the Jewish tradition of a millennium, and by 
others that he thought that after the resurrection the Lord would reign in 
the flesh with the saints {Vir.Ill. 18). "Viands are among the sources 
of delight in the resurrection," and "the kingdom of heaven consists in 
the enjoyment of certain material foods." The righteous who are to share 
in this millennium enjoy a wealth of food of all kinds, which is described 
fully by Irenaeus in the famous passage that speaks of the prolific fruitful- 
ness of the vine and the wheat (Iren. V. 33, 34). Whether Papias also held 
another idea of the resurrection — a resurrection of the spirit or a spiritual 
body — which would come at the end of this millennium, we have no data to 
know. In the Testimony of the Elders, preserved by Irenaeus, there is a 
gradation of rewards for the righteous, and, at least, two if not all three 
classes enjoy material rewards in the after-life (Iren. V. 36). Those who 
inhabit the city, the New Jerusalem on earth, will of course live an earthly 
life; those who enjoy the delights of Paradise will be bodily translated there; 
those who go to heaven might be supposed to assume another form, but 
this again is not the final goal and final resurrection ; for it is asserted that 
those who are translated to Paradise merely remain there until the end of 
all things. As to the nature of the final resurrection which must logically 
conclude the millennium era we can give no definite answer. 

In the so-called Second Epistle of Clement, or the earliest homily, the 



24 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

resurrection is approached from a consideration of the nature and impor- 
tance of the flesh. Although there is only one passage which directly deals 
with the resurrection, nevertheless the idea of the fleshly resurrection of 
men is set forth in more realistic terms than in any of the writers thus far 
examined. In 9:1-5 we read: "And let not any one of you say that this 
flesh is not judged neither riseth again. Understand ye. In what were 
ye saved ? In what did ye recover your sight ? if ye were not in this flesh. 
We ought therefore to guard the flesh as a temple of God : for in like manner 
as ye were called in the flesh, ye shall come also in the flesh. If Christ 
the Lord who saved us, being first spirit, then became flesh, and so called 
us, in like manner also shall we in this flesh receive our reward." This 
is an unmistakably clear statement, the argument of which was directed 
against those who denied a bodily resurrection, presumably an incipient 
Gnosticism (cf. 8, 14, 16). The body which rises has not merely the same 
kind of substance which the earthly body possesses, but it is the very identical 
substance {avr-q rj o-dp£). There are two arguments set forth for this kind 
of a resurrection. A person shall be judged in the flesh and will receive 
recompense in the flesh in the same manner in which he was called. This 
idea of the resurrection of the flesh — for the purpose of judgment and 
rewards — is set forth in this ancient homily for the first time. The flesh 
is also a temple of God, and therefore must be guarded and kept pure. He 
calls it the holy flesh (17 <rdp£ dyvrj) (8:4). Here may be an allusion to 
Paul (I Cor. 6:14,19); but in the case of Paul the attention is directed to 
the fact that we carry in our bodies the Spirit of God, which, becoming a 
temple of God, should be kept pure and undefiled. In this homily, however, 
the reason for keeping the body pure is because it will rise again. Christ 
had put the emphasis on the inner life, stating that the life which is in God 
and for God is eternal. Clement II lays stress on the flesh and states that 
the flesh will have an eternal life provided it is kept pure. We shall rise 
in the flesh because of the singular fact that Christ was first spirit, and that 
when he came to save us he assumed flesh. These arguments became 
dominant later on; and in the passage quoted is expressed the underlying 
thought which was taken up by later writers and developed with great 
completeness. 

The Shepherd of Hermas approaches the resurrection from the same 
standpoint, and it is not surprising that this should have been the case, 
since it came "ex eadem communione ac societate" In Sim. V. 7, 1 f., we 
read as follows: "Keep thy flesh pure and undefiled, that the spirit which 
dwelleth in it may bear witness to it and thy flesh may be justified. See 
that it never enter into thy heart that this flesh of thine is perishable 



THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS 25 

and so thou abuse it in some defilement. [For] if thou defile thy flesh, 
thou shalt defile the Holy Spirit also, but if thou defile the spirit, thou shalt 
not live." 1 Flesh is not perishable, and its survival after death is a basis 
for morality. Hermas also teaches that the flesh which survives the spirit 
unblamably shall have a place of sojourn, in order that it may not lose 
the reward of its service (Sim. V. 6, 7). 

In the apostolic Fathers the idea of the resurrection, though meagerly 
treated, is nevertheless of great significance. With the exception of Bar- 
nabas and those treatises which deal with the millenium, there is a decided 
uniformity as to what the nature of the resurrection body shall be. The 
Pauline conception, in spite of Pauline allusions and references, falls into 
disfavor; and a bodily resurrection in the material sense, with reference 
both to Jesus and to men, is either tacitly assumed or avowedly expressed. 
In the effort to oppose Docetisrn the reality of the flesh of Christ — both of 
his earthly career and, significantly, also of his heavenly state — is asserted. 
Dependence is shown, in at least one instance, upon an extra-canonical 
gospel; and some of the theological and apologetic arguments, so pronounced 
in subsequent writers, are set forth in an incipient form. 

1 This is according to the Gebhardt, Harnack, and Zahn text, which reads: iav 
5£ /xidvrjs rb irvedfxa, ov ^cry. Lightfoot's text is still more suggestive for our purpose, 
reading ra crdpKa, instead of rb Trvev/xa. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE APOLOGISTS 

In the early apologists the doctrine of the resurrection is more fully- 
developed, and the ideas concerning it are more comprehensively stated, 
than they were in the apostolic Fathers. A few single treatises were 
written on the subject, and many original arguments were used. Justin 
Martyr being the foremost, if not the first, among the apologists, largely 
leads and pioneers the way. He deals with the resurrection both of Jesus 
and of men, both in the Apologies and in the Dialogue with Trypho. Speak- 
ing first of the resurrection of Jesus, it does not, in his thought, hold the same 
place as the second coming, the virgin birth, and the crucifixion; even 
though the significance attributed to it lies in the fact that it sets forth his 
glory and makes certain his second coming. Nevertheless, Justin makes 
reference to the story imbedded in Matt. 28:11-15; viz., that the disciples 
stole the body of Jesus and then declared his resurrection, and adds that the 
Jews proclaimed this " godless doctrine" throughout the world (Dia. 108). 
He also repeats the tradition of the evangelists in regard to the post- 
resurrection life of Jesus, and understands it in the same way in which it 
was portrayed by John and Luke. Jesus was buried at eventide and rose 
again on the third day (Dia. 97, 100) — "the third day" being here 
mentioned for the first time outside the gospels. 1 After the resurrection he 
lived with his disciples, assured them that his passion and death were fore- 
told, and sang hymns with them (Dia. 106); in variation from the gospels, 
he asserts that when the disciples were convinced, by Jesus, of his resurrec- 
tion, "they went into all the world, and taught these truths" (Dia. 53). 

His idea of the resurrection of men can be approached best by presenting 
his whole conception of the after-life, since in his thinking the resurrection 
is knit up with his entire eschatology. There are two marked features in 
his eschatology: the one is the millennium, the other the resurrection; and 
the two are indissolubly bound together. Death he defines as the separa- 
tion of the soul from the body. "Man does not live always, and the soul 
is not forever conjoined with the body, since, whenever this harmony 
must be broken up, the soul leaves the body, and man exists no longer" 
(Dia. 6). The soul neither perishes with the body nor suffers dissolution 

1 Cf. also Aristides, Apol. II, where the description runs thus: "He died, was 
buried, and they say that after three days he arose and ascended to heaven." 

26 



THE APOLOGISTS 27 

and yet, souls are not naturally immortal (Dia. 5). The soul, he states, is 
not life, but has life, which life may be extinguished; nevertheless it is God's 
will that souls should not die, but be kept intact. If death would be the 
end then it would be "a piece of unlooked-for luck" (ep/juitov) to all the 
wicked (Apol. I. 18). The soul at death does not directly go to heaven or 
hell, as the heretics teach (Dia. 80); but it enters an intermediate place, 
where all common mortals remain until the resurrection (Dia. 5). He 
repeatedly and emphatically states that these souls in Hades are still 
endowed with sensation (Apol. I. 20; Dia. 57). Greek life, literature, and 
mythology point to this fact (Apol. I. 18). However, this state of sensa- 
tion in which the righteous experience joy and the unrighteous pain is not 
the end and goal of the future life. 

Justin accepted the idea of the millennium, and inserted it bodily into 
his system of thought. This millennium kingdom is established at Christ's 
second coming, and is preceded by the resurrection of dead Christians, 
prophets, and pious Jews. It is known as the first or " holy resurrection" 
(ayux dvao-rao-is, Dia. 1 1 3), differentiated from the general or ' 'eternal 
resurrection" (alwvia dvdo-Tao-19, Dia. 81). During this time the New 
Jerusalem will be built; and there will be physical enjoyments, in which 
Christ will eat and drink with the members of his kingdom. At the close 
of the thousand years of Christ's reign upon the earth the second act of the 
great drama of the resurrection is expected. This resurrection is intended 
for all men, without exception (Dia. 81), and is designed primarily for 
judgment ; through which such recompense is made that the just ascend into 
heaven and the wicked descend into a hell of fire (Apol. II. 1, 2; Dia. 130). 
In form and nature the two acts of the resurrection do not differ from each 
other. The life after the second resurrection is simply a continuance of 
the life of the millennium. There is no indication that the resurrection of 
the one is that of the body, and the other that of the spirit; nor that the 
second resurrection is of a spiritual body, while the former was a material 
body. In fact, Justin nowhere desires his readers to form the impression 
that the resurrection body in the millennium state is different from that 
of the post-millennium state. 

What then is the precise nature of this resurrection body ? It is to be 
noted that the term "resurrection of the flesh" (yap/cos dvdo-Tao-i?) comes to 
light here for the first time. The term "rising of the flesh" had been 
used before, but not "resurrection of the flesh." However, the expres- 
sion occurs only once in Justin (Dia. 80). As a rule he prefers the biblical 
expression, "resurrection from the dead." But at no point is one left in 
doubt as to what kind of a resurrection is meant. The body rises with the 



28 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

same form and substance, with the same component parts and members 
from the grave, as it possessed while alive. "We expect to receive again 
our own bodies, though they be dead and cast into the earth, for we main- 
tain that with God nothing is impossible." 1 It is asserted, with reference 
to the wicked, that their bodies will unite again with their spirits, and 
undergo everlasting punishment (Apol. I. 8); and with reference to the 
righteous, that there will be a perfect identity between the deceased and risen 
body — the only difference being that mutilated bodies will rise with their 
limbs restored (Apol. I. 8). There will also be in the resurrection body a 
discontinuance of the sexual functions (based on Luke 20:29-34), and 
an exemption from pain (Dia. 69, 121). In Apol. 1. 19, Justin tries to meet 
an objection which has been made, or which, at least, he feels might be 
made, viz., that it is impossible that the bodies of men which have been 
dissolved should rise again with the same form and substance. This he 
answers by referring to the miraculous power of life and growth issuing 
from a human seed. The analogy, however, of the human seed is not an 
analogy of the process of the resurrection, but is used only to indicate the 
power of God, and the credibility of a bodily resurrection. The resur- 
rection seems incredible to one merely because he has never seen it, just 
as the growth of a man out of a human germ would seem incredible were 
it not a commonplace. 

Justin bodily repeats and formally adheres to Christian tradition in 
his treatment of the resurrection, which he indissolubly binds up with the 
millennium. He himself states that the resurrection of the flesh and the 
thousand years' reign belong only to a certain class — those who are thor- 
oughly orthodox (o/>0oyvw/Aoves Kara tzo.vto. XpicmavoL, Dia. 80). He makes 
no attempt to interpret either Jesus or Paul on the resurrection, but 
simply falls back on Jewish and Christian apocalypses and on Christian 
tradition for his ideas of the resurrection. Neither is he carried away by the 
Platonic conceptions of immortality. He thoroughly knows the position 
of Plato and states it (Dia. 1), but only to refute it. His theology is very 
much colored with the philosophic conceptions, especially with reference 
to God and the Logos; and yet, notwithstanding, he sets over against it 
the grossest and most materialistic conception of the after-life and the 
resurrection body, which, in fact, is in direct opposition to Hellenistic ideas, 
and which ill accords with his otherwise Platonic conceptions. 

The treatise entitled "On the Resurrection" 2 attributed to Justin, but 

1 Apol. I. 18. 01 kclI ra peKpoijfxeva Kal els yrjv (5a\\6p.epa TrdXiv airoX'fifiecrdcu eavrdv 
(Toj/xara irpocr5oKG}p.ev, ddvvarov ix-qbev elvai deep \e"yovres. 

2 irepl avacrracrews. 



THE APOLOGISTS 2 () 

wrongly so, may be treated in this connection. At least, it belongs not 
far after Justin. 1 This pseudonymous writing is more Platonic and more 
ascetic than the authentic works of Justin. The entire treatise is devoted 
to an exposition of the resurrection, and is of the highest value for our 
purpose. It is the first attempt to set forth the resurrection of the flesh 
in an orderly manner. It is an apologetic against the heathen denial of 
the resurrection, and indirectly a polemic against Gnostic tenets. The 
arguments of the opponents are stated and then refuted one by one. In 
one passage attention is drawn to the fact that the argument is "secular 
and physical," not scriptural (5), 2 while the reason assigned for adopting 
this line of argument is to meet the opponents of the resurrection on their own 
ground; and, in fact, this is what the treatise mostly undertakes to do. 
The purpose as stated is twofold: first, to solve the things which seem insol- 
uble to those who deny the resurrection of the flesh; and secondly, to demon- 
strate, in an orderly manner, that the flesh will partake of salvation (2). 

The writer shows, in the first place, that the body will rise entire — 
with all its former members and organs, which, however, will not all per- 
form the same functions as they performed in the earthly body. There 
are even cases in this life in which that is true; for he writes, "Let not, then, 
those that are unbelieving marvel, if in the world to come he do away with 
those acts of our fleshly members which even sometimes in this present 
life are abolished" (3). The resurrection body, however, will be perfect 
and entire without any bodily defects. One of the purposes for which Jesus 
performed miracles of healing was to induce the belief that in the resurrec- 
tion the flesh shall rise entire. "For if on earth he healed the sicknesses of 
the flesh, and made the body whole, much more will he do this in the 
resurrection, so that the flesh shall rise perfect and entire" (4). 

Furthermore, God is competent to raise this earthly body. The heathen 
believe that all things are possible to their gods, and if they believe so, 
Christians have much more reason to believe this with reference to their 
God. Besides, that the first man was created, that men are generated from 
a human seed, that cases of resurrection have actually happened — all 
these are proofs that God has the power to bring about a universal resur- 
rection (5). The resurrection is also consistent with the opinion of the 
philosophers: with Plato, who says that all things are made from matter 
by God; with Epicurus, who asserts that all things are made from the atom 
and the void; and with the Stoics, who declare that all things are made out 

1 "Darf somit fur sehr wahrscheinlich resp. fur fast gewiss gelten, class unsere 
Schrift bereits vor 180 existirte." — Harnack, Gesch, Altchrist. Litt. II, 1, p. 509. 

2 These references are to chaps, in pseudo-Justin, De Resurrectione. 



30 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

of the four elements. " There are some doctrines acknowledged by them 
all in common, one of which is that neither can anything be produced from 
what is not in being, nor anything be destroyed or dissolved into what has 
not any being, and that the elements exist indestructible out of which all 
things are generated. And this being so, the regeneration of the flesh will, 
according to all these philosophies, appear to be possible" (6). The 
flesh in God's sight is also a precious possession, as is evident from its 
creation (7). It is not the flesh alone that sins, as is asserted by the oppo- 
nents of the resurrection; but both body and soul sin together. And if 
it should really be true that flesh is sinful, then there is this undeniable 
fact that the Savior came to save flesh; so that in either case flesh must be 
valuable in God's sight, and being valuable, he must raise it (8). 

In the concluding chapters, preserved only in fragments, the resurrec- 
tion of the flesh is set forth in its clearest light. This resurrection is proved 
both from Christ's miracles of raising and his own resurrection. The 
former is manifested in the following passage: 

If he had no need of the flesh, why did he heal it ? And what is most forcible 
of all, he raised the dead. Why ? Was it not to show what the resurrection should 
be ? How then did he raise the dead ? Their souls or their bodies ? Mani- 
festly both. If the resurrection were only spiritual, it was requisite that he, in 
raising the dead, should show that body lying apart by itself, and the soul lying 
apart by itself. But now he did not do so, but raised the body, confirming in it 
the promise of life (9). 

The latter, that is, the proof from Christ's own resurrection is described 
in the following words: 

Why did he rise in the flesh in which he suffered, unless to show the resurrection 
of the flesh? And wishing to confirm this, when his disciples did not know 
whether to believe he had truly risen in the body, and were looking upon him and 
doubting, he said to them, " Ye have not yet faith; see that it is I;" and he let them 
handle him, and showed them the prints of the nails in his hands. And when 
they were by every kind of proof persuaded that it was himself and in the body, 
they asked him to eat with them, that they might thus still more accurately ascer- 
tain that he had in verity risen bodily; and he did eat honey-comb and fish. And 
when he had thus shown them that there is truly a resurrection of the flesh, wishing 
to show them this also, that it is not impossible for flesh to ascend into heaven 
(as he had said that our dwelling-place is in heaven), "he was taken up into 
heaven while they beheld," as he was in the flesh (9). 

In this quotation the bodily resurrection of Jesus is portrayed with 
greater reality than in our canonical gospels. The description seems 
to accord in some respects with the Gospel according to the Hebrews; for 



THE APOLOGISTS 3 I 

in that gospel, as in this treatise, it is stated that the disciples actually 
touched the risen Lord. The ascension in the flesh reminds us of Ignatius, 
on whom there may have been a tacit dependence. The concluding frag- 
ment states the resurrection of the flesh also very realistically. 

The resurrection is a resurrection of the flesh which died. For the spirit 
dies not; the soul is in the body, and without a soul it cannot live. The body, when 
the soul forsakes it, is not. For the body is the house of the soul; and the soul 
the house of the spirit. These three, in all those who cherish a sincere hope and 
unquestioning faith in God, will be saved. 1 

Herein it is explicitly stated that the resurrection is a resurrection, not 
merely of the flesh, but of the very "flesh which died." 

In summing up the views set forth by pseudo-Justin, it may be noted: 
(i) that there is to be a real resurrection of the flesh, and accordingly 
various terms — the resurrection of the flesh, salvation of the flesh, regen- 
eration of the flesh, promise of the flesh — are used to express this idea; 
(2) that the resurrection of Jesus was of a material body — a person capable 
of being touched, who ate and in the flesh ascended into heaven; (3) that 
the arguments, because they are determined, in method and content, 
by the opponents of the resurrection, are apologetic and theological 
rather than scriptural; (4) that in the use of the post-resurrection narratives 
of Jesus there is apparently felt the influence of an extra-canonical gospel 
— the Gospel according to the Hebrews; (5) that no use is made of the 
Pauline teaching on the resurrection, or of the teachings of Jesus, save 
to the effect that in the resurrection body certain functions are annulled. 

Athenagoras wrote a treatise On the Resurrection of the Dead, 2 in which 
he sets forth the doctrine of the resurrection of the body in a still more 
logical scheme than pseudo-Justin. The opponents against which the 
treatise was directed are the heathen. Like pseudo- Justin, Athenagoras 
also divides his work into two parts: in the first, or negative part, he answers 
certain objections offered by those who oppose the doctrine of the resur- 
rection; and in the second, or positive part, he instructs and confirms 
Christians in their belief in the doctrine. In the first part, he shows that the 
objectors have no reason to doubt that the bodies of men will be restored. 
He refutes both underlying objections, viz., that God is neither able nor will- 
ing to call the dead back to life. And if God, he continues, is unable to accom- 

1 De Resurrectione (10): ' Kvaaraais iarc rod TrewTcoKdros crapidov • trvevva yap ov 
irlirTei. ipvxv iv (T&ixoltI eariv, ov £rj 8£ &\J/vxov ' crQp.a, tf/vxvs airo'Kenrovcnjs, ovk %o~tiv. 
oTkos yap rb o~G)p.a \f>vxv s > irvevp.aTos 8k \pvxV oTkos. to, rpia 5k ravra ro?s iXirida et'Xi- 
Kpivri Kal iriariv abiaKptrov ev ry 6eip €xovo~lv awdrjaeTai. 

- irepl dvaardaews veicpQv. 



32 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

plish the resurrection, then he must be deficient either in knowledge or in 
power. But either position is absurd; for God knows, yea, he must know, 
"both the members entire and the particles of which they consist, and 
whither each of the dissolved particles passes, and what part of the elements 
has received that which is dissolved." Neither can he be ignorant of 
the method by which bodies may be recalled to life (2). 1 Moreover, God's 
power is also sufficient for the raising of dead bodies. The God who 
created them must also be able to restore them ; a fact which he maintains 
to hold true, whether we think of the first formation of bodies and their 
elements, or the formation through pro-generation. Even the parts of 
human bodies which are taken into animals can be separated and restored 
by God (3). Disbelievers object, saying that human elements, eaten and 
absorbed by animals or human beings, cannot be separated (4). To this 
he answers by saying that for each living thing God has provided suitable 
food, and that only what is suitable becomes a part of the body through 
the process of digestion, while whatever is unsuitable is rejected (5, 6). In 
chap. 7, a new line of argument is introduced, and the objections are met 
on a higher plane. The resurrection body will be somewhat different 
from the present, throwing aside its corruptibility, its needs, and its material 
functions and conditions (cf. Apol. 31). Hence no foreign element can 
become a necessary part of that true body which shall rise. The objectors 
to the resurrection draw a conclusion from potters and artificers, who are 
unable to renew their work when once destroyed; but Athenagoras points 
out that there is no basis for an objection in this analogy, since "what is 
impossible with man is possible with God" (9). That God does not 
wish to raise the dead — the second underlying objection — is likewise unten- 
able. The resurrection of men is not an injustice to angels (vorjTal <f>vo-eis); 
nor do inanimate or irrational beings, who do not share in the same resur- 
rection, sustain any wrong; nor is injustice done to the man who is raised, 
"for he consists of soul and body and he suffers no wrong as to either soul 
or body;" "nor can one say that it is a work unworthy of God to raise up 
and bring together again a body which has been dissolved" (10). 

In the second part of the discussion four arguments are adduced in 
support of the resurrection of men: (1) The final cause of man's creation. 
Man was not created for the sake of another being, but that he might be 
a perpetual beholder of divine wisdom. The creature who has in himself 
the image of his Creator partakes of an intelligent life, and, having become 
a spectator of God's grandeur and wisdom manifested in all things, con- 

1 All references, unless otherwise indicated, are to the above-mentioned work, 
On the Resurrection 0} the Dead. 



THE APOLOGISTS ^ 

tinues always in the contemplation of these; and for this purpose the resur- 
rection of the body and the soul is established (12, 13). (2) Consideration 
of man's nature, who is the end of rational life, and who consequently must 
have a perpetual existence. Man is composed of an immortal soul, and a 
body fitted to it in creation. Both are active in life and there is one harmony 
and community of experience in this world. Hence the end of these two 
must be the same, and since there is one common end of the being thus 
compounded the resurrection is a necessary inference. If the entire nature 
of man does not continue, then everything is in vain — body and soul, under- 
standing and insight, righteousness and virtue, everything joyous and beauti- 
ful (14-17). (3) The necessity of divine judgment, in body and soul, from 
the providence and justice of God. Deeds are wrought in union of body 
and soul, and it would be unjust to reward or punish only one. If there 
is no resurrection then there is no providence, and no reward of good or 
evil. It would be unjust to reward or punish the soul alone when the body 
was a partaker of good and bad deeds. Again, the virtues and vices of 
man cannot be thought of as existing in an unembodied soul. Even the 
ten commandments (especially four, six, and seven) are designed both for 
body and soul, and the soul alone is not to be held responsible (18-23). 
(4) The ultimate end of man's being, not to be attained on earth. Every- 
thing has its particular end and, in accordance with this principle, man also 
has his particular end. Freedom from pain cannot be the final goal for 
man, nor can it consist in the enjoyment of things which nourish or delight 
the body, nor in the abundance of pleasure, nor in the happiness of soul 
separated from body. Since then man's end cannot be attained on earth, 
it must be attained hereafter in a state where body and soul are again united 
(24, 25). 

As to the nature of the resurrection body, Athenagoras bears testimony 
to a few distinguishable, if not distinct conceptions. There is, in the first 
place, the reiterating conception that, in the resurrection, the same souls 
are given to the same bodies, and that the bodies which have moulded 
away and have been dissolved and reduced to nothing will be reconstructed. 
"The resurrection of dissolved bodies" 1 is a very common expression. 
The resurrection body is to be exactly like the mundane body, absolutely 
identical with it in the material parts and particles which compose it. What 
has reverted to nature through the natural processes of dissolution will 
again be reinstated. No matter where the elements have gone, and into 
what they have been converted, they will, at the appointed time, be brought 
back by the power and will of God to their former place in the body (2-6) . 

1 ■}) twv diaXvdivTUP (rw/xaTOiv &vd(TTa<ris. 



34 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

And it is frankly admitted that the elements which constitute the body- 
can be assimilated into animals, but not into the tissues of human bodies; 
so that there can be no serious objection to the view that our present bodies 
can be restored in substance and form (6). On the other hand, the idea 
of a body, in the resurrection, different from the present one is repeatedly 
emphasized in clear and unmistakable terms. The resurrection body 
will throw aside its corruptibility and also bring about other changes; 
so that identity of material between the two bodies is unthinkable. It is 
stated that neither the blood contributes anything to life, i.e., the resurrec- 
tion life; nor does the phlegm, nor the bile, nor the breath (7); that the 
constant change of the body proves, first, that it cannot be determined 
what the real body is, and, secondly, that the resurrection is simply one 
more link — the last — in a " hierarchy" of changes. There is a constant 
change in the flesh and the fat as well as the humors, in time of health and 
more often in time of sickness, a gradual change from a human seed to a 
living being, a continual change in age, appearance, and size, and finally, 
another change at the time of the resurrection process (7, 12, 17). "For the 
resurrection is a species of change and the last of all, and a change for the 
better of what still remains in existence at that time" (1 2) . This change is so 
radically conceived that in one place the author even compares the risen 
body to a heavenly spirit {Apol. 31). That which rises, however, is not 
mere spirit, but body or flesh, so changed that the term "heavenly spirit" 
is used to describe it. It is flesh, not pure spirit; and yet it is not flesh, 
that is, it is changed and transformed flesh. Such must be the meaning 
of the following passage: 

We are persuaded that when we are removed from the present life we shall 
live another life, better than the present one, a heavenly, not earthly (since we 
shall abide near God, and with God, free from all changes and suffering in the soul, 
not as flesh, even though we shall have flesh, but as heavenly spirit), or falling 
with the rest, a worse one and in fire. 1 



Athenagoras presents a very interesting phenomenon. He sets forth, 
on the one hand, a resurrection of the body in the material sense — setting 
it forth so literally as to explain how the very dissolved particles will all be 
reinstated in the risen body; and, on the other hand, he depicts the nature 
of the resurrection body, in language and description which well-nigh 

1 Apol. 31: weTreicrfxeda rov ivravda airaWa'yivTes filov (3iov erepov fiidxrecdou, dp.ei- 
vova. ij Kara top ivddbe kcli iirovpdviov, ovk iiriyeiov (ws hv jxera deov /ecu <ri>v 0e<£ dk\t.veh 
Kal airadeis tt)v ^vxv v , °^X <*> s crdpKes, kcLv %x w ^ v i "XX' <*>* ovpdviov irpedfia, p.evo\jp.ev) } ij 
<TvyK.a.Tair'nrTOVTes rots \onrois x ei -P ova - Ka ^ ^ irvpds. 



THE APOLOGISTS 35 

approach the Pauline conception. We labor in vain to find a synthesis 
between these two conceptions. The only solution for this incongruity 
lies in his eclecticism. It has been said that he was the first of eclectics. 
In his theology there is an unmistakable trace of the Platonic and the 
Peripatetic combined with Christian elements; so that, with reference to 
the resurrection, we naturally expect to find divergent views. In fact, 
he holds to the idea of recollections, one of the Platonic arguments used in 
substantiation of the soul's immortality. His eclectic spirit caused him also 
to employ Pauline conceptions and ideas, which ill accord with the current 
and traditional conceptions of the resurrection. He knew Paul and alludes 
to the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians in several instances. Funda- 
mentally, however, Athenagoras held to the resurrection of the flesh, which, 
because of his eclecticism, is often overlaid by other ideas of a resurrection. 
Theophilus of Antioch makes a few references to the resurrection. 
He believes in the resurrection of the body, evidently in the material sense. 
He says nothing of the relation of the resurrection body to the mundane 
body. His interest is in the fact of the resurrection rather than in a discus- 
sion of its nature. The resurrection, he argues, is in no wise unreasonable, 
and those who do not believe in it now will nevertheless believe when the 
resurrection shall have taken place. Again, God is able to bring about 
a resurrection, evinced by the fact that if he first brought man into being 
out of nothing and since then every human being out of a small seed into 
life, he is also able to remake him in the resurrection (Autol. I. 8, 13). "And 
can you not believe that the God who made you is also able to make you 
afterwards." The real ground, however, for the resurrection is in two 
considerations: first, the testimony from analogy, and, secondly, the testi- 
mony from the Sacred Scripture (Old Testament). The unbelieving 
say, Show me one who has been raised from the dead, that seeing I may 
believe. To this Theophilus replies that the heathen believe in the con- 
tinued life of Hercules and Esculapius, but if we should tell of such a case 
they would be incredulous. Then he continues to present his arguments 
from analogy in proof of the resurrection. He points to the different 
seasons, day and night, seeds and fruits: a seed of wheat, for example, 
or of the other grains, when it is cast into the earth first dies and rots 
away, then is raised and becomes a stalk of corn. The heavenly bodies, 
likewise, show forth a resurrection: there is the "resurrection of the moon," 
which "wanes and dies and rises again." Then there is a resurrection 
going on in man himself: it often happens that through sickness one loses 
his flesh and his strength, but through God's power he is again restored 
to his former state (I. 14). Finally, he lays still more stress upon prophetic 



36 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

Scripture, in which all things were foretold and among them the resur- 
rection of the body. 

The resurrection of which Theophilus speaks is a general resurrection 
of all men. The nature and form of the resurrection body is not described, 
but it is tacitly assumed that it is a bodily resurrection in the material sense. 
At least, that is what the unbelievers to whom he wrote understood by it, since 
they asked for the restoration of a man that they might believe. The 
analogies seem to point in the same direction; so also the expression "raise 
thy flesh immortal with thy soul" (I. 7). The idea of the nature of the 
resurrection is taken from Christian tradition, with little reference to the 
New Testament. There are no traces of the Pauline doctrine — although 
the analogies may have been suggested by his analogy of the seed — and 
no references to the resurrection of Jesus. 

The extant fragments of Melito, bishop of Sardis, furnish us with 
a few rhetorical phrases on the resurrection of Jesus expressing the current 
conception. The expression, "he rose from the dead," or, "the place 
of the dead," is very common. Thus it is said, "he arose from the dead 
and ascended to the heights of the heaven, and sitteth on the right hand 
of the Father" (On Passion). References are also made to his resurrec- 
tion, descent into Hades, his ascension, and session at the right hand, and 
to the relief of prisoners in Hades. "He arose from the place of the dead 
and raised up men from the earth — from the grave below — to the heights 
of heaven" (On Faith). Jesus rose in a bodily form; and his body did 
not even suffer dissolution (On Passion). Again, the collocation of words 
in regard to the post-resurrection life of Jesus are such as have always 
been associated with a fleshly resurrection. Melito does not draw his 
conception from any particular portion of Scripture, but adheres rather 
to Christian tradition. He also tries to show that the coming of Christ 
was necessary for our resurrection. 

Tatian in his Oration to the Greeks imparts, more or less indirectly, 
unique conception of the resurrection. He approaches it altogether 
rom a philosophical, or rather a psychological point of view; and indeed 
his doctrine of the soul is anomalous. The resurrection doctrine is worked 
out from the existing relation of body, soul, and spirit, and the relation 
sustained by these three to God. Man, he says, consists of three parts 
flesh, soul, and spirit. The flesh is that which incloses the soul, is equiv- 
alent to body, and is the property of men, but not of God and demons 
(15). Spirit is of three grades; first, there is the spirit pervading matter, 
secondly, the spirit assimilated to the soul, and thirdly, the divine spirit 
apart from its works (4). There are in man thus two kinds of spirits, the 



THE APOLOGISTS 37 

one which is common to all matter, and the divine spirit or the Holy Spirit. 
Another name for the natural spirit in man is soul, and soul is material, 
so that in the trichotomy of man soul is equivalent to natural spirit (-n-vtv- 
uuara v\lk6). Natural spirits are material though not fleshly. Soul is 
nothing else but a label given to the material spirit in man. Demons 
are spoken of as material creatures (12). Their structure may be desig- 
nated as spiritual, but, in reality, they are like fire and air, which are the 
reflections of matter (15). Hence the soul or material spirit is an ethereal 
substance like air or fire. But not all spirits are material, or rather not 
everything spiritual is material. God is a spirit, and he is immaterial; 
the soul is a spirit but material, since it is created. There is also a spirit 
superior to matter, greater than the soul (7), the representative of God, his 
image, his spirit (13, 15), which dwells or, at least, can dwell in man, which 
might be termed the Holy Spirit. 

Out of this psychology of Tatian arose his conception of the resur- 
rection. The argument in one place runs as follows: God is incorrupt- 
ible, man partakes of God, therefore man is incorruptible (7). But, on the 
other hand, Tatian teaches more than simple personal immortality; and 
his argument is exceedingly complex at those points in which he suggests 
a resurrection of the body as well as the soul. Soul, or material spirit, 
is the bond connecting God's spirit, pure and undefiled, with the flesh. 
Now unless the soul or material spirit is in relationship with the immaterial 
spirit or Holy Spirit, the soul will pass into eternal dissolution, and the 
body or the flesh as well; since the soul is the bond between them. If, on 
the other hand, the soul or material spirit acquires the knowledge of God 
it dies not, although for a time it be dissolved (13). Again, he teaches 
that the soul, or material spirit is interwoven with the body or flesh and 
manifests itself through the body. "Neither could it [the soul] appear 
by itself without the body, nor does the flesh rise again without the soul "(15). 

Tatian has no room for an intermediate place, and yet souls at death 
do not immediately pass to their final abode. Souls — remembering that 
they are material — as well as bodies are dissolved, but both will rise again. 
He speaks of a double death for the soul in the case of those who know not 
God. There is a resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things, 
not a return of certain cycles as the Stoics teach, but a " resurrection once 
for all;" and the purpose of this resurrection is to pass judgment upon 
men (6). The resurrection of the former physical bodies is also vividly 
stated in the following passage: 

Even though fire destroy all traces of my flesh, the world receives the vaporized 
matter; and though dispersed through rivers and seas, or torn in pieces by wild 



38 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

beasts, I am laid up in the storehouses of a wealthy Lord. And, although the 
poor and the godless know not what is stored up, yet God the sovereign, when he 
pleases, will restore the substance that is visible to him alone to its pristine con- 
dition (6). 

Tatian does not undertake to prove anything from prophecy, neither 
does he fall back on the teachings of either Jesus or Paul or any of the 
New Testament books to substantiate the resurrection. He devotes a 
relatively large part to a consideration of it, but it is mostly indirectly, and 
approached through his peculiar psychology. He does not mention the 
resurrection of Jesus, neither his second coming, nor a millennium; and 
has no place for Hades. 

The apologists took great pains in setting forth the Christian article 
of the resurrection of the flesh, which was so offensive to Graeco-Roman 
culture. Only in a few cases did they compromise with their opponents; 
as a rule, they were driven to the opposite extreme, and the influence of 
Hellenism was purely negative. With the exception of Tatian, they all 
prove the resurrection of the flesh in about the same manner. The value 
of their labors is twofold: (1) they set forth the resurrection in clear and 
unmistakable terms; (2) they brought into existence an array of argumen- 
tative material. 



CHAPTER V 

THE GNOSTICS 

Gnosticism deserves an important place in a discussion of the resur- 
rection in the ante-Nicene period. In the first place, a knowledge of 
Gnostic tenets concerning the resurrection is a necessary introduction to 
Irenaeus and Tertullian; and in the second place, Gnosticism itself is a 
phase of Christian history, and as such it deserves attention, too. Gnosti- 
cism is simply an acute Hellenization of Christianity. With reference to 
the resurrection Gnostic tenets are most significant. It was the idea of 
the resurrection, as much as anything else, which divided the early church 
into two hostile camps. The belief in the resurrection of the flesh was a 
characteristic mark of the orthodox church; while the denial of it was a 
characteristic mark of every Gnostic sect. The former advocated a resur- 
rection of body and soul; the latter " disallowed the resurrection affecting 
the whole man." 1 

In an effort to restate Gnosticism, we are at once confronted with a 
serious difficulty. The writings of the Gnostics have perished, and we 
know their tenets only through their opponents, who may often have 
misunderstood them and given undue emphasis to certain minor state- 
ments. Pistis Sophia is practically the only monument left coming from 
the hand of a Gnostic himself. In it are contained a few valuable hints 
on the resurrection of Jesus. 

References to an incipient Gnosticism denying the resurrection appear 
even in the New Testament. Paul found such a tendency in the midst 
of the Christian community in Corinth. "How say some among you 
[Christians] that there is no resurrection of the dead?" (I Cor. 15:12). 
In II Tim. 2:17, 18, Hymenaeus and Philetus are named as persons who 
say that "the resurrection is past already." 2 The resurrection is under- 
stood by them not in an eschatological, but in a spiritual, or moral, sense. 
Similar traces of a denial of a resurrection among Christians were found in 
Ignatius, in Clement II (9:1), Polycarp (7:1), and in Hernias (Sim. V. 7). 
These early documents give the impression that the denial of a fleshly 
resurrection played into the hands of the libertines, and that as a result many 
abuses of the flesh ensued. If there is to be no resurrection of the body then 

1 Iren. Contra Haereses V. 31: Universam reprobant resurrectionem. 

2 TTjv avd<TTa<ru> ijdr} yeyovtvai; some MSS omit tt\v. 

39 



40 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

the flesh, in accordance with their logic, can have free rein. This is brought 
out still more strikingly in the Acts of Paul and Thecla. This book was 
written to show that the resurrection of the flesh is a reward for self-control 
and virginity. Demas and Hermogenes, who are represented as being 
hostile to this principle and to Paul, reflect the libertine Gnosticism in 
these words: "We shall teach thee that the resurrection of which this man 
speaks has taken place, because it has already taken place in the children 
which we have." Herein is a denial of the resurrection of the flesh in the 
eschatological sense and an affirmation of it in a moral sense. What is 
meant, however, by the resurrection continuing in our children cannot be 
definitely determined, since this is the only instance in early literature of 
such a doctrine. 

On the other hand, there is also a denial of the resurrection on the part 
of those who were not primarily drawn to an indulgence of the flesh, but 
whose way of thinking and conception of things in general caused them to 
look upon the resurrection as a vulgar and inconceivable doctrine. They 
were serious in their denial of a fleshly resurrection, and it was a matter 
of life and death for them. This classic Gnosticism was a potent force in 
the second century; and it is thus important to consider these various 
Gnostic writers and sects for the purpose of ascertaining what each one 
held respecting the after-life. 

Menander, a disciple of Simon Magus, strenuously opposed a bodily 
resurrection in the material sense. The body, he taught, was the work 
of an angel, and was not created by the supreme God. Hence it is to be 
considered evil and is unworthy of a resurrection (Tert. Resur. of Flesh 5). 
His disciples, he declares, obtain the resurrection by being baptized into 
him; whereupon they die no more but remain in the possession of immortal 
youth (Iren. I. 23:5). Saturnius also taught that angels formed all things, 
and among them man. These angels tried to form him after the similitude 
of a certain light which flashed over the world; but man wriggled on the 
ground like a worm, until a spark of life was sent forth which gave him an 
erect posture and made him live. This spark of life, after man's death, 
returns to those things which are of the same nature with itself; while the 
rest of the body is decomposed into its original elements. A resurrection 
of the flesh, in accordance with this method of creation and death, is utterly 
impossible (Iren. I. 24:1). 

Basiiides alleged that the flesh of Christ possessed no reality and that 
consequently it can have no resurrection. Jesus, he asserts, was an incor- 
poreal power, and transfigured himself as he pleased, and then ascended 
into heaven without even being crucified. Salvation belongs to the soul 



THE GNOSTICS 4 1 

alone, for the body is by nature subject to corruption (Iren. I. 24:4, 5; 
Tert. Resur. of Flesh 2). Valentinus, another prominent Gnostic, taught 
with reference to Christ that his flesh had qualities peculiar to itself; and 
that he conversed with his disciples for eighteen months after his resurrec- 
tion (Tert. Against Valentinus 26; Iren. I. 3:2). This fact was undoubt- 
edly taken from a spurious writing, known as the Gospel of Truth (Iren. 
III. 11:9). The Valentinian account of the last things is decidedly original. 
On the last day Acamoth enters Pleroma and the Demiurge moves from 
the celestial Hebdomad into the chamber vacated by his mother. Human 
beings will have to pass through the same stages, until they reach 
their final goal, except the wicked, who are annihilated. Though the 
flesh of the righteous is not saved, yet their souls are saved and are con- 
veyed to the middle regions, where the Demiurge now dwells. Into the 
Pleroma nothing of the animal nature is admitted. There the souls put 
off everything except the intellectual, and the intellectual spirits alone enter 
the Pleroma (Tert. Against Valentinus 31; Iren. II. 29:3). The Ophites, 
another sect, taught that at the crucifixion a spirit from above was sent into 
Jesus, "who raised up his body again, but only the physical and spiritual 
since the mundane parts lie in the earth." That which rose was not the 
former body, and the disciples were mistaken in imagining that it was 
(Iren. I. 30:13). 

Marcion's attitude on the resurrection is shown by Tertullian in the 
following words: "Marcion does not in any wise admit the resurrection of 
the flesh, and it is only the salvation of the soul which he promises; con- 
sequently the question which he raises is not concerning the sort of body, 
but the very substance thereof" (Against Marcion V. 10). There are 
two reasons why Marcion figures as such a strong opponent of the resur- 
rection of the flesh. In the first place, he was diametrically opposed to 
everything Jewish and to Jewish influences. He believed the God of the 
Jews to be the Demiurge, and denied the whole Jewish eschatology and 
the reality of the messianic kingdom. In the second place, his opposition 
grew out of his dualism. Flesh and spirit, he held, were antagonistic forces, 
created by two different gods: flesh was created by the evil god, spirit 
by the good god. Lucan, a disciple of Marcion, sets forth again a different 
view. He asserted that neither the body nor the soul rises, but a third 
substance precipitated from these — thus reducing nature in accordance 
with the principle of Aristotle, and substituting something else in lieu of 
it (Tert. Resur. of Flesh 2; pseudo-Tert.). Apelles, likewise a pupil of 
Marcion, also denied the resurrection of the flesh; and with reference to 
Christ, he said that his body was of sidereal substance, which he assumed 



42 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

in his descent, and which was deposited again among the stars in the 
resurrection (pseudo-Tert.). The Carpocratians, Sethians, Cainites, 
and other Gnostics need not be discussed, since they made no further con- 
tribution to the subject, holding merely to the general contention that the 
soul will rise, but that the body will pass to eternal dissolution. The author 
of Pistis Sophia maintains that Jesus, after rising from the dead, had 
spent eleven years with his disciples instructing them, during which 
time he had only the appearance of a body. In the twelfth year he 
ascended, and the ascension, which is that of the spirit, is set forth very 
elaborately. Jesus withdraws to certain realms, and then reappears, 
and withdraws again, until finally the last heaven is reached. 

Thus all the Gnostics, although they blankly deny the resurrection of 
the flesh, predicate in some way or other the soul's immortality. Now 
this persistence of man's spiritual nature in the after-life was variously 
conceived. In general, they denied an intermediate place from which 
the soul had to be transferred, at some future day, to another realm; but 
taught that immediately after death the soul enters into its final abode 
(cf. Justin Dia. 80; Tert. Resur. of Flesh 22). In a resume of Gnostic 
doctrines, Irenaeus presents us with a helpful summary. He writes (V. 
19: 2): 

And still further, some affirm that neither their soul nor their body can 
receive eternal life, but merely the inner man. Moreover, they will have it that 
this [inner man] is that which is the understanding (sensum) in them, and which 
they decree as being the only thing to ascend to "the perfect." Others [maintain] 
.... that while the soul is saved, their body does not participate in the sal- 
vation which comes from God. 

Through an inductive study of the Gnostic tenets as imbedded in the 
writings of Irenaeus, Tertullian, and the apologists, it may safely be asserted 
that they maintained a spiritual survival after death in about four ways: 
(1) the soul in toto survives, and at death immediately passes into its 
final place (Basilides and others) ; (2) only the inner sense or understanding 
(sensus) survives (Valentinus) ; (3) a third substance passes into the other 
world, which is neither body nor soul (Lucan) ; (4) a body survives, but not 
the former mundane body (Ophites). 

The Gnostics did not drop the word " resurrection' ' out of their vocabu- 
lary. It would have been an unwise policy for them to disregard altogether 
the Jewish and Christian expression "resurrection of the dead." They 
used it in three different senses. In the first place, they employed it eschato- 
logically, declaring, in accordance with their tenets, that the resurrection 
of the dead simply means that the soul is immortal, and being immortal, 



THE GNOSTICS 43 

it can be thought of as having a resurrection (Tert. Resur. of Flesh 18). 
In the second place, they used it in a moral or ethical sense, asserting that 
the resurrection takes place now — that is, as soon as men come to a knowl- 
edge of the truth (Tert. Resur. of Flesh 19, 22) — hence the expression 
"the resurrection is past already." Then, in the third place, "resurrection 
of the dead" was used allegorically. Some maintained that it meant an 
escape out of the world, "since, in their view, the world is the habitation 
of the dead — that is, of those who know not God;" others maintained 
that it actually meant an escape out of the body itself, "since they imagine 
that the body detains the soul when it is shut up in the death of a worldly 
life, as in a grave" (Tert. Resur. of Flesh 19). 

While, on the one hand, the Gnostics strenuously held to the survival 
of spiritual personality after death; on the other hand, they emphatically 
and repeatedly denied the resurrection of the flesh. This was the starting 
point of their whole system of theology, according to Tertullian, who states 
that they start from this point, and from it "sketch the first draft of their 
dogmas and afterward add the details" {Resur. of Flesh 4, 11). Their 
denial of the resurrection of the flesh grew out of presuppositions funda- 
mental to their entire system. A very close analogy between Gnostic 
and heathen opposition is noticeable. In fact, it is an impossibility to 
separate sharply between specific Gnostic and specific heathen arguments. 
The Fathers recognized this, and declared that there is no difference 
between Gnostic teachings on the resurrection and those of the heathen. 
A comparison of the arguments of the heathen opponents, as reflected in 
pseudo-Justin and Athenagoras, with the Gnostic opponents, as reflected 
in Irenaeus and Tertullian, confirms this observation. The Gnostics 
denied the resurrection of the flesh on the ground that the flesh is an ignoble 
and unclean substance — ignoble as to its origin and casualities, "unclean 
from its first formation of the dregs of the ground, unclean afterwards from 
the mire of its own seminal transmission, worthless, weak, covered with 
guilt, laden with misery, full of trouble." They held to a dualism 
between body and soul, matter and spirit. The former was created either 
by an angel or angels, or the Demiurge; the latter by the good God. 
Redemption was the process of freeing the soul forever from its material 
bondage. Christ's resurrection could therefore be only a resurrection 
of his spirit. The material character of his resurrection was denied from 
two standpoints. In the first place, there were those who denied the reality 
of his flesh, saying that it was impossible for Jesus to assume flesh, since 
flesh was evil. In this case the resurrection of the flesh is at once excluded. 
This position was prominent in the systems of Marcion and Basilides. 



44 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

In the second place, it was asserted by some, especially by Valentinus 
and Apelles, that this body was of an entirely different creation from that 
of man: it was sidereal and was again deposited among the stars after the 
resurrection. 

With reference to the interpretation of Scripture bearing on the resur- 
rection, the Gnostics have been charged with an allegorical interpretation. 
As a matter of fact, some of their interpretations are allegorical; but the 
bulk of those referring to the resurrection, at least, as far as they are col- 
lected in the secondary sources, is truer to a historico-grammatical exegesis 
than the orthodox interpretation of that day. They are charged with 
allegorical interpretations sometimes where there is no allegorical inter- 
pretation. Thus, for instance, Tertullian charges them with torturing 
Ezekiel's vision of the Valley of Dry Bones into a proof of an allegorical 
sense. The Gnostics interpreted correctly that this vision was simply 
an image and not a true prediction of the resurrection, and that it taught 
the political restoration of the nation (Tert. Resur. of Flesh 30) ; while 
the same incident was used incorrectly by the orthodox Christians to 
defend a resurrection of the flesh. Jesus was interpreted by the Gnostics 
as having taught, merely and consistently, a resurrection of the soul. His 
answer to the Sadducees was for them an exclusive proof of a spiritual 
resurrection. Aside from Marcion, who somewhat changed Luke's text 
to suit his purpose, the Gnostics held that the "likeness to angels" (ladyyeXot 
ela-iv) debarred altogether a bodily resurrection. They also made use 
of other sayings of Jesus, which they interpreted in conformity with their 
tenets. However, the clearest and the strongest witness they found in 
Paul. They used the same passages to substantiate their position that 
the Fathers used. They evidently laid great emphasis on the phrase, 
"Therefore we are always confident and fully aware, that while we are 
at home in the body we are absent from the Lord" (Tert. Resur. of Flesh 
43). The Pauline term "spiritual body" was for them another proof of 
the survival of the soul without the body. And the term "natural body" 
(atofxa if/vxiKov) they held to be merely a paraphrase of soul (^vxn), in the 
expression "it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Their 
greatest proof-text was I Cor. 15:50: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit 
the kingdom of God." Flesh and blood were interpreted, not in a spiritual, 
but in a literal sense, and correctly so. That this was a great proof-text 
of the Gnostics is evident from the fact that Tertullian devotes four chapters 
(Resur. of Flesh 48-51) and Irenaeus three (V. 9-1 1) to the refutation of 
their interpretation of it. The Gnostics were charged with first formulat- 
ing their doctrines and then going to Scripture and interpreting it in accord 



THE GNOSTICS 45 

with them. Yet in spite of this criticism we cannot hut feel that they must 
have been greatly influenced by Jesus and Paul. Their method of inter- 
pretation was not simply an attempt to conform Scripture to their tenets, 
but, on the other hand, Scripture rather contributed to the formulation 
of their system. Whether, therefore, accidentally or otherwise, they never- 
theless came very close to the results of modern historical interpretation 
of Scripture bearing on the resurrection; even though with reference to 
other subjects this statement in no wise holds good. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE GREAT POLEMICISTS 

In opposition to the spiritualistic and metaphysical beliefs about the 
soul is the elaborate treatment of the resurrection of the flesh by Irenaeus 
and Tertullian, dating from the latter part of the second and the beginning 
of the third century. They revived, on the resurrection, the ideas and argu- 
ments of the apologists, and, in addition, sought elaborate scriptural proofs 
for their position. The importance attached to the resurrection of the flesh, 
at this time, is evident also from the Old Roman Symbol 1 out of which 
arose our Apostles' Creed. The resurrection, ascension, and session of 
Jesus are mentioned in it; but its greatest significance lies in the article 
referring to the resurrection of the flesh. The article, "the resurrection of 
the flesh," 2 phrased as it was with the emphasis upon flesh, is a clear protest 
against the denial of the salvability of the flesh. In the Old Roman Sym- 
bol this article stood by itself at the close of the creed. It was evidently 
appended to this three-membered creed based upon the threefold baptis- 
mal formula. It is an article entirely unrelated to what precedes. All 
this simply shows the tremendous importance of the article in the eyes of 
the author or authors. Scarcely another article in the creed was consid- 
ered of such importance as the one which originally read: "I believe in 
the resurrection of the flesh." The import of this article of faith comes 
to view more fully in our study of Irenaeus and Tertullian. 

Irenaeus undertook a systematic exposition and overthrow of all here- 
sies. In this polemic the resurrection holds an important place. In his 
last book of Against Heresies, he deals almost exclusively with the last 
things. The denial of the reality of the flesh of Christ, involving a denial 
of his fleshly resurrection, and the denial of the salvation of the flesh, mak- 
ing the fleshly resurrection of men impossible — all this is part of the thesis 
against which his argument on the resurrection is directed (V. 1:2; 31 :i). 
He also reflects Christian tradition in the form of a primitive creed in at 
least three instances. He observes that in the Catholic church itself 
divergent views exist on the nature of the resurrection, especially in its 

1 Originated between 150-175 a. d. See McGiffert. The Apostles' Creed. Va- 
riant forms of this Symbol are found in Iren. I. 10:1; IV. 33:7; V. 20:1. 

2 a-apKos av&o-TCMTiv. Our English translation of it, "resurrection of the body," 
somewhat obscures the original signification of this article. 

46 



THE GREAT POLEMICISTS 47 

relation to the millennium (V. 31 :i). There can be no question but that 
he appreciates and defines accurately the generally accepted orthodox 
position. A noteworthy passage on the nature of the resurrection of Jesus 
and of men, and the relation which the two sustain, is recorded in V. 31 : 1 , 2. 

But the case was, that for three days he dwelt in the place where the dead 
were, as the prophet says concerning him. . . . And the Lord himself says, 
"As Jonas remained three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall 
the Son of man be in the heart of the earth." .... And on his rising again, 
the third day, he said to Mary, who was the first to see and to worship him, "touch 
me not, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to the disciples, and say 
unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and unto your Father." If, then, the Lord 
observed the law of the dead, that he might become the first-begotten from the 
dead, and tarried until the third day "in the lower parts of the earth;" then after- 
ward rising in the flesh, so that he even showed the print of the nails to his dis- 
ciples, he thus ascended to the Father For as the Lord went away in the 

midst of the shadow of death, where the souls of the dead were, yet afterward 
arose in the body, and after the resurrection was taken up [into heaven], it is 
manifest that the souls of his disciples also, upon whose account the Lord under- 
went these things, shall go away into the invisible place allotted to them by God 
and there remain until the resurrection, awaiting that event; then receiving their 
bodies, and rising in their entirety, that is bodily, just as the Lord arose, they 
shall come thus into the presence of God. "For no disciple is above the Master, 
but every one that is perfect shall be as his Master." As our Master, therefore, 
did not at once depart, taking flight [to heaven], but awaited the time of his resur- 
rection prescribed by the Father, which had been also shown forth through 
Jonas, and rising again after three days was taken up [to heaven]; so ought we 
also to await the time of our resurrection prescribed by God and foretold by the 
prophets, and so, rising, be taken up, as many as the Lord shall account worthy 
of this [privilege]. 

The contention of the entire passage is to establish the resurrection 
of the flesh. (1) The resurrection of a material organism is deduced from 
the gospel narrative, and dependence is shown on one of those gospels — 
the Gospel of John 1 — in which the appearances of a material body are 
very prominent. (2) The characteristic repetitions — "Jesus tarrying in 
Hades for three days" or "until the third day" — are deliberately used as 
an indirect argument for a fleshly resurrection. The Gnostics (Valen- 
tinians) taught that the soul of man passes upon his death immediately 
into heaven. Irenaeus, however, insists that this was not the case with 
Jesus; for he remained in Hades until the appointed time, after which 

1 John 20: 17, 20, 27. Cf. Iren. V. 7:1 for a similar argument based on this 
gospel, in which reference is made to the prints in his risen body. 



48 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

he arose in the flesh, manifested himself to his disciples in the flesh, and 
then ascended into heaven in the flesh. (3) The stages through which 
Christ passed are the stages through which men — believers — must pass. 
Jesus was an example of what the resurrection of men shall be. The 
disciples will not fare better than their Master. They will also at death 
go to Hades and there remain until the time of the resurrection, when 
they shall arise in their entirety, that is, with their bodies, even as Christ 
who did not leave his body upon the earth. (4) The ascension as well as 
the resurrection is one in the flesh and in the former body. The language 
of the passage conveys no other idea than that the ascension body is similar 
to the resurrection body; which will be true of men, even as it was of Jesus. 

The ideas of the resurrection as set forth in the above passage are 
in perfect accord with the rest of the teachings of Irenaeus. The resur- 
rection is discussed in other connections, and is approached from other 
points of view, and arrived at through other arguments. At this point 
reference may also be made to another event in the post-resurrection life 
of Jesus — his second coming. This is to be in the same flesh in which 
he tabernacled among men (III. 16:8). Jesus came in the flesh, the heavens 
were opened and he was received in the flesh, and he " shall also come in 
the same flesh in which he suffered." 

Irenaeus insists more strenuously and consistently than any writer 
thus far examined that the risen body is the exact reproduction of the 
former body, both as to form and as to substance. God, he declares, con- 
fers a proper soul on each individual body and in the resurrection the 
same body shall unite again with its own soul and spirit. The doctrine 
of metempsychosis has no place (II. 33:1-5), for the very reason that 
punishment must be inflicted and judgment pronounced on the soul with 
its own and only body. But it is not merely the same bodies that will be 
restored, but also the same substances in the bodies. "The same sub- 
stance of flesh which has become breathless and dead shall also be quick- 
ened" (V. 12:2). And in one of the fragments, 1 it is specifically stated 
that the bodies after death decompose, but without perishing; that the 
remains, which are mixed with the earth, are, in the resurrection, recast 
and restored to their original form; and that between the mundane and 
the risen body there is only one difference, and that is in reference to cor- 
ruption, the former being subject to decay, because of primeval disobedience, 
which is not true of the risen body. Deformities also will not continue 
as is evident from Christ's healings, the object of which was to restore 

x Frag. xii; this seems to be a quotation from the lost treatise of Irenaeus, On 
the Resurrection. 



THE GREAT POLEMICISTS 49 

infirm parts to their original condition, so that they would be in a position 
to obtain salvation (V. 12:6; 13:1). The wicked, on the other hand, 
will rise with their deformities and diseases and sufferings, with bodies 
always corruptible. 

Irenaeus also proves the resurrection of the flesh from the Eucharist 
(IV. 18:5; V. 2 : 2, 3). This is an original argument in proof of the resur- 
rection of the flesh, though it was slightly alluded to heretofore by Ignatius 
(Eph. 20). Bread and wine, which are both earthly and heavenly, are 
the material through which a seed of immortality enters into man. The 
bread and wine through the word of God become the body and blood of 
Christ. And as such the Eucharist so nourishes the flesh that total dis- 
solution becomes impossible. "When, therefore, the mingled cup and 
the manufactured bread receive the word of God, and the Eucharist of 
the blood and body of Christ is made, from which things the substance of 
our flesh is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is 
incapable of receiving the gift of God." 1 A true redemption of "the body 
of flesh" is thus inferred from its sacramental union with the body and 
blood of Christ. Our bodies, like Christ's, shall be raised incorruptible; 
"for we are members of his body, of his flesh, of his bones." Believers 
are made one with him by sacramentally receiving him, which accordingly 
makes the dissolution of the body impossible. Nothing, he concludes 
is more natural than the resurrection of the flesh when one has partaken 
of Christ's flesh. 

The resurrection of the flesh is attributed also to the power of God. 
There is nothing inherent in the substance of the body which will cause it 
to rise; but it rises through the power of God (V. 6:2), spoken of sometimes 
as a gift from God (IV. 9:2). Then there is ample proof that God has 
this power to raise the dead. The fact of creation assures re-creation; 
for it is easier to reinstate the body than to have created it originally out of 
the dust (V. 3:2). If God quickens and sustains the flesh in this present, 
temporal life he will certainly do the same in the eternal life (V. s : 3)- 
Another proof is the lengthened period of life granted to the patriarchs; 
the translation of Enoch and Elijah; the preservation of Jonah in the whale, 
and of Ananias, Azarias, and Misael in the furnace of fire (V. 5). Again, 
if God were not to raise dead bodies then he would be either weak or power- 
less, or else envious or malignant; but none of these attributes belongs 
to him (V. 4) . 

1 Irenaeus Contra Haereses, V. 2:3: 'Oirbre odv Kal to xexpafxhov Trorripiov, Kal 6 
7e70J/u)s tipros iiriddx^raL rbv \6yov rod deov Kal yLvercu 77 evxapurrla crQ/xa Xpiarov {et fit 
Eucharistia sanguinis et corporis Christi) 4k tovtuv de" atf£et Kal cvvicrrarai ij -7-775 aapKbs 
T)p.G)v vw6<rTa<ris- 7r<3s SeKTiKrjv p.7} elvai \eyovo~i tt\v o~dpKa ttjs 5a>peas tov deov. 



50 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

The most significant and original approach to the resurrection is from 
the standpoint of psychology and the interpretation of Paul. In the sixth 
chapter of the fifth book, Irenaeus begins to set forth a trichotomy. Before 
this he had presented a dichotomy. "Man is a mixed organization of 
soul and flesh" is his usual designation of the make-up of man (cf. IV. 
Pref.; III. 22 : 1). This division of body, soul, and spirit to which he now 
adheres, he undoubtedly derived from Paul; inasmuch as he makes a 
deliberate reference to I Thess. 5:23 at the beginning of this section. He 
contends that salvation, that is, the resurrection, is bestowed on the whole 
nature of man, who is a "commingling and union of all these." Hence 
it follows that the flesh, as well as the soul and the spirit, will persist in a 
life beyond the grave. He calls it blasphemy to assert that "the temple 
of God," "the members of Christ" (I Cor. 3:16, 17), which are the flesh, 
should not partake of salvation, but that they should be reduced to per- 
dition. Again, he takes up Paul's phrase, "quicken your mortal bodies," 
and shows that "mortal bodies" has reference neither to souls, since 
souls, which are equivalent to the breath of life, are incorporeal; nor to 
spirits, since spirit is simple and non-composite, subject to no decomposi- 
tion and, in fact, the quickening life itself; but to the flesh, for it alone 
can be decomposed and quickened. He comments on I Cor., chap. 15, 
but reads into the Pauline conception a resurrection of the body in the 
material sense. He uses the term "spiritual body," and defines it as the 
body in which the Spirit dwells. The change from the psychical body to 
the spiritual is through the Spirit's instrumentality, whereby the body 
undergoes no particle of change, save that the source from which it receives 
its life is changed. At great length (V. 9-1 1) does he expound the words 
in I Cor. 15:50, "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." 
This phrase was, as we have already seen, the slogan of the Gnostics who 
used it to disprove the resurrection of the body. Irenaeus, on the other 
hand, insists that "flesh and blood" is not to be taken in the literal mean- 
ing of the terms ; but that the words apply to the carnal deeds which pervert 
man to sin and deprive him of life (V. 14:4). The expression, he main- 
tains, simply means that "mere flesh and blood devoid of the Spirit of 
God" and good works cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It refers to 
fleshly works rather than flesh strictly so called. "Unless the word of God 
dwell with, and the Spirit of the Father be in you, and if ye shall live frivol- 
ously and carelessly as if ye were this only, viz., mere flesh and blood, ye 
cannot enter the kingdom of God." (V. 9). 

This same truth is also enforced by his trichotomous psychology. 
Spirit is that which preserves and fashions the man; flesh is that which 



THE GREAT POLEMICISTS 5 1 

is united and formed; while between these two stands the soul, which 
sometimes follows the spirit and is raised up by it, and sometimes sympa- 
thizes with the flesh and falls into carnal lusts (V. 9:1). Hence, "mere 
flesh and blood" exist when the soul has become a sharer of the flesh and 
a neglecter of the spirit. The comparison drawn from the wild olive tree, 
the quality of which though not the nature, is changed by grafting, also 
indicates that the Spirit of God enforcing the human spirit will not trans- 
form the substance of flesh. 

The millennium receives some treatment in the last five chapters of the 
last book. Just as it is an appendix to this book, so is it also an appendix 
to his thought; and it does not in the least alter the position which he has 
thus far assumed on the resurrection. The millennium is not an integral 
part of the resurrection idea as it was with Justin. The resurrection of 
the just, or the first resurrection, in this millennium appendix, involves 
a resuscitation of dead bodies. 

To summarize the teachings of Irenaeus very briefly, we would say: 
(1) his discussion on the resurrection is largely polemic, directed against 
those who denied a bodily resurrection in the material sense; (2) he 
sets forth with stern consistency what he terms "the resurrection of the 
flesh;" which, in his mind, is a resuscitation of the former body, being 
identical with it as to both form and substance; (3) there is no difference 
between the resurrection body of Jesus and of believing men; (4) literary 
dependence is shown on the resurrection narratives of the Gospels of John 
and Luke and the present conclusion of Mark; and out of these gospels 
the crass materialism alone is selected. He also makes the first real attempt 
to interpret Paul on the resurrection; and yet, at every turn, he interprets 
him as teaching a fleshly resurrection of the body. The term "spiritual 
body" is a material body in which the Spirit dwells, and the phrase "flesh 
and blood" is devitalized into ethical terms; (5) the arguments in sub- 
stantiation of a resurrection of the flesh are many and various: they are 
scriptural, psychological, and theological. Messianism is no longer a 
controlling thought, and chiliasm is a mere appendix. Apart from scrip- 
tural proofs, the competency of God, salvation belonging to the whole man, 
the nourishment in the Eucharist, and the possession of God's spirit are 
the most significant arguments. 

We now come to Tertullian, whose treatment of the resurrection is 
the fullest of any of the ante-Nicene Christian Fathers. Like pseudo- 
Justin and Athenagoras, he devoted a treatise exclusively to the resurrection 
entitled, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 1 in which the resurrection received, 

1 De Resurrectione Carnis. 



52 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

in an orderly manner, a more comprehensive discussion than it had in 
any of the preceding monographs. The resurrection is also discussed 
in many of his other writings. The resurrection to which he holds is the 
resurrection of the flesh, and in the gamut of his thinking it is an important 
doctrine. He calls it the Christian trust (Jiducia), u sl truth which God 
reveals, but the crowd derides." He also asserts that the very oneness 
of the Godhead is closely related to this doctrine; "for if the resurrection 
of the flesh be denied, [that prime article of the faith] is shaken; if it be 
asserted, it is established." 1 He explicitly states that he who denies this 
doctrine which is professed by Christians, is not a Christian, but a heretic. 

Now the specific ideas which Tertullian held on the resurrection can 
best be presented in following his line of argument as recorded in his work 
On the Resurrection of the Flesh, to which additional material, when in 
order, will be inserted from his other works, either to confirm, or to elabo- 
rate, or to check. This book is a polemic from beginning to end. It is 
directed against those who maintain that the world was created by the 
Demiurge, who was opposed to the supreme God; that the flesh or body 
of man is inherently corrupt and worthless; and that, therefore, the body 
cannot rise again, while the soul alone is capable of immortality. In the 
first place, it is asserted that the world, with all its errors, does not ignore 
the resurrection of the dead. While a few wise men have denied immor- 
tality, yet most of them predicate a future state for the soul. And they 
even unconsciously give testimony to the resurrection of the body. The 
common people, in their banquets and sacrifices for the dead, and the 
philosophers, through the doctrine of metempsychosis, bear indirect 
testimony to the truth of revelation. "They knocked at the door of truth, 
although they entered not." (1-3 ; 2 Against Marcion V. 9; On Nations 1. 19). 

The first real proof of the resurrection of the flesh is the dignity of the 
body (4-10). Tertullian lays hold of almost every argument possible to 
set forth this truth. Former writers had made reference to this fact, but 
in none was it completely developed. It has a great apologetic value, 
and Tertullian was conscious of this, knowing that the disparagement of 
the flesh was the first "battering-ram of the heretics." If it can be shown, 
he argued, that the flesh is worthful instead of loathsome, and if it can be 
pointed out that Hellenic dualism is fictitious, then the first great premise 
of a belief in the resurrection of the flesh is established. 

That the flesh is dignified and worthful, and not evil, is shown in various 

1 Op. tit. 2: "Sicut enim negata carnis resurrectione concutitur, ita vindicata con- 
stabilitur." 

2 Unless otherwise stated, all references are to De Resur. Carnis. 



THE GREAT POLEMICISTS 53 

ways. It is worthful because it was created by God, and, in fact, it received 
a special creation at his hand. We should not think of the lowliness of 
the material out of which the flesh was made, but of the dignity and skill 
of the maker; just as the Olympian Jupiter of ivory is the world's supreme 
deity — not because of the bulk of the elephant from which the material was 
taken, but on account of the renown of Phidias. Moreover, the flesh is 
not merely a minister and servant of the soul, but it turns out to be also 
its associate and coheir. "And if all this in temporal things, why not 
also in things eternal?" In one's relation to Christianity the flesh holds 
an important position. "Flesh is the very condition on which salvation 
hinges." Thus baptism, the sign of the cross, the imposition of hands, 
partaking of the Eucharist, as well as virginity, widowhood, and restraint 
are all done through the flesh. Scripture magnifies the flesh under the 
terms "temple of God" and "members of Christ." Attached to the 
dignity of the flesh lies the competency of God as a proof of the resurrection 
of the flesh. And this is evident from the fact that if God was competent 
to create, he is also competent to recreate, which is the easier matter. It 
is much easier to maintain a continuance than to have imparted a beginning. 
Similarly, the argument from analogy — the change of day and night, 
the changes in the moon, the changes in the seasons, the transformation 
in the plants, and the symbol of the phoenix — is a proof of the resurrection 
of the flesh (11, 12; cf. Against Mar cionV. 10; Apol. 48). Through nature 
God proclaimed the resurrection before he wrote it in Scripture. There 
is also a sufficient cause for the resurrection of the flesh in the future judg- 
ment of man (14). This judgment involves the entire human being: 
"Now, since the entire man consists of the union of two natures, he must 
therefore appear in both, as it is right that he should be judged in his 
entirety." The flesh participates with the soul in all human conduct, 
and it will receive punishment or reward in accordance with its deeds (15). 
Should this not be so, then God would have to be either idle or unjust; 
but this cannot be attributed to God. Tertullian does not hold that the 
flesh will have to be present at the final judgment, because otherwise the 
soul would be incapable of suffering pain or pleasure being incorporeal. 
He asserts that the soul per se is capable of joy and sorrow in Hades, even 
without a body (17) ; although there is considerable variation in his language 
upon this subject. In his Apology (48) and Testimony of the Soul (4), 
he speaks as if the soul could not suffer when separated from the body; 
but in the Resurrection of the Flesh and in his Treatise on the Soul he main- 
tains that the soul is corporeal and capable of sensation. This is inferred 
from the parable of Dives and Lazarus, in which he supposes that souls 



54 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

are corporeal, since they could be imprisoned and seen and touched (cf. 
Soul 7). In Hades souls either undergo punishment for the evil deeds 
that were executed without the flesh, or refreshment for the pious acts so 
executed (cf. Soul 58). Granting, then, that a soul is corporeal and sus- 
ceptible to torments and blessings, nevertheless, in spite of this provision, 
he insists most strenuously that this is not sufficient, but that there must 
be somehow and at some time a union of soul with its former body in order 
that full compensation may be made for the deeds done through and by 
the flesh. 

Even though Tertullian finds a great presumption in favor of the resur- 
rection of the flesh from a general consideration apart from Scripture, 
nevertheless, he considers all this merely prefatory, and falls back on an 
exposition of Scripture as the strongest proof of his position. He denounces 
the Gnostics for an allegorical interpretation in matters pertaining to the 
resurrection; and yet himself uses and justifies an allegorical interpretation 
sometimes when it suits his purpose. He also insists that figurative senses 
have their foundation in literal facts; that "vacuity is not a consistent 
basis for a similitude, nor does nonentity form a suitable foundation for 
a parable. " In his work, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, a systematic 
attempt is made to interpret the Old as well as the New Testament on the 
subject of the resurrection. Though most of his interpretations are crude 
and incorrect they are nevertheless significant for this historical study. 
He takes up the scriptural expression, "the resurrection of the dead" 
(resurrectio mortuorum), and explains to what substance these terms apply 
(18-22). He refers them to the rising of that which has fallen, and that 
which has fallen is not the soul, but the flesh. "It is the flesh which falls 
by death; and accordingly it derives its name, cadaver, 'corpse' from 
cadendo, 'falling.' " In Against Marcion, the same idea is brought forth 
with still greater completeness. 

"To rise," indeed, can be predicated of that which has never fallen down, but 
had already been always lying down. But "to rise again" is predicable only of 
that which has fallen down; because it is by rising again, in consequence of its 
having fallen down, that it is said to have re-risen. For the syllable re- always 
implies iteration (or happening again). 1 

Tertullian finds an unquestionable proof of the resurrection of the 
flesh in the Christian apocalypses (24-27). In his description of the last 

1 Adv. Marcionem (V. 9): "Surgere enim potest dici et quod omnino non ce- 
cidit, quod semper retro iacuit. Resurgere autem non est nisi eius quod cecidit; iterum 
enim surgendo, quia cecidit, resurgere dicitur. RE enim syllaba iterationi semper 
adhibetur." 



THE GREAT POLEMICISTS 55 

days and the Lord's coming, a fleshly resurrection is always assumed. 
Such language, he maintains, could not have been used of the soul, inas- 
much as these apocalypses project the resurrection into some future time, 
and imply that the soul does not attain unto its destiny immediately at 
death. In his use of Old Testament material he makes many allegorical 
interpretations. The terms " Kingdom of God" and "Millennium" 
were spiritualized. This is very significant since we should have expected 
the same crass materialism here that is adhered to in other instances; but 
he explicitly states that those terms which are associated with a millennium 
must not be taken literally (26). He finds a doctrine of the resurrection 
of the flesh in the restoration of the hand of Moses (38), in EzekiePs vision 
of the Valley of Dry Bones, and in the preservation of Jonah in the whale (32). 

In commenting upon the teachings of Jesus, Tertullian declares that 
the bodily character of the resurrection is avowedly assumed wherever 
the word resurrection occurs. The words, "The Son of Man came to 
seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), are referred to the 
whole man — soul and flesh (33, 34). The destruction of the body and 
soul in hell (Matt. 10:28) also pre-supposes a resurrection, for, unless the 
body were raised again, "it would be impossible for the flesh to be killed 
in hell" (35). Christ's refutation of the Sadducees is, however, of more 
vital interest for our purpose (36). He states that the Sadducees denied 
a resurrection both of the soul and of the flesh, and that Jesus affirmed 
this verity in the precise sense in which they were denying it; that is, he 
affirmed the resurrection of the two natures of man. "Equal unto the 
angels" means a transference into an angelic state by the putting on of 
the raiment of incorruption (cf. also 62). Christ's acts were no ostentatious 
exhibition of power for a temporary kindness, but in order to put in safe 
keeping (sequestrare) the belief in a future resurrection, and to prove that 
that resurrection would be a resurrection of both natures {substantia) (38). 

He refers to the Acts of the Apostles, in which he finds the resurrection 
of the flesh amply attested. In his preaching before the Sadducees, before 
Agrippa, and before the Athenians, Paul, it is alleged, could not have 
taught anything else but a bodily resurrection in a material sense; which, 
being an absolutely new doctrine, was thereupon opposed (39). The 
largest space, however, in his interpretation of Scripture with reference 
to the resurrection is devoted to Paul's epistles (40-63). The inner and 
the outer man, the old man and the new man, the figure of baptism, and 
various other teachings are marshaled together in support of the resurrection 
of the flesh. The passages most potent for his purpose are II Cor., chap. 5, 
and I Cor., chap. 15; and in the interpretation of these the real nature and 



56 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

character of the resurrection body are set forth. In II Cor., chap. 5, he 
finds a distinct reference to a resurrection of a corporeal body. The expres- 
sion, " clothed upon," presupposes a resurrection of the flesh which can 
be clothed, since clothing can only be put over a material body. However 
this act of being clothed upon, with a kind of heavenly supervesture, makes 
the bodies incorruptible and fit for their heavenly habitation (41). In 
Against Marcion (V. 12) this passage in conjunction with I Cor. 15:53 
receives its fullest exposition as follows: 

In this tabernacle of our earthly body we do groan, earnestly desiring to 
be clothed upon with the vesture which is from heaven, if so be that, having been 
unclothed, we shall not be found naked;" in other words, shall regain that of which 
we have been divested, even our body. And again he says: "We that are in this 
tabernacle do groan, not as if we were oppressed with an unwillingness to be 
unclothed, but (we wish) to be clothed upon." He here says expressly, what 
he touched but lightly in his first epistle (where he wrote): "The dead shall 
be raised incorruptible" (meaning those who had undergone mortality), "and 
we shall be changed" (whom God shall find to be yet in the flesh). But those 
shall be raised incorruptible, because they shall regain their body — and that a 
renewed one, from which shall come their incorruptibility; and these also shall 
in the crisis of the last moment, and from their instantaneous death, whilst en- 
countering the oppressions of anti-Christ, undergo a change, obtaining therein 
not so much a divestiture of the body as a "clothing upon" with the vesture which 
is from heaven. So that whilst these shall put on over their (changed) body this 
heavenly raiment, the dead also shall for their part recover their body, over which 
they too have a supervesture to put on, even the in corruption of heaven ; because 
of these it was that he said: "this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this 
mortal must put on immortality." The one put on this (heavenly) apparel, 
when they recover their bodies; the others put it on as a supervesture, when they 
indeed hardly lose them (in the suddenness of their change). 

Like Irenaeus, he interprets "flesh and blood" in an ethical sense, 
asserting over and over that it has reference not to the substance of the 
flesh but to the works thereof (48-51 ; Against Marcion V. 10-15). Paul's 
analogy of the seed is to teach, not that, in the resurrection, a different body 
is to arise from that which is sown in death, but that "the very same flesh 
which was once sown in death will bear fruit in resurrection-life — the 
same in essence, only more full and perfect; not another, although re- 
appearing in another form" (52). Paul does "not deny a community of 
substance, but a parity of prerogative " in his illustration of certain examples 
of animals and heavenly bodies (52). Likewise, the term "spiritual body" 
denotes a body fully possessed of the spirit, and has no reference to a change 
in substance (53; Against Marcion V. 10). 



THE GREAT POLEMICISTS 57 

Thus far we have observed Tertullian's arguments for the resurrection 
of the flesh as derived from a consideration of the nature of the flesh, the 
nature of God, and the teachings of Scripture. When we turn to his treat- 
ment of the soul, and attempt to approach the resurrection from the stand- 
point of his psychology, we come to an anticlimax and an inconsistency. 
In his treatise, On the Soul, he sets forth the Stoic conception of the soul's 
corporeality. He asserts that the view of the Stoics with reference to the 
soul is correct; viz., that the soul is corporeal and even material (8); that 
it has a body of a quality and kind peculiar to itself, such as form, limita- 
tion, and "the triad of dimensions — length, breadth, and height;" that 
the shape is that of the body, the color, transparent light (9); that it can 
think and feel and exist apart from the body (9; 58); that it is invisible 
to the flesh, but visible to the spirit (8). Evidently Tertullian is Stoic as 
well as Christian; and certainly he does not correlate nor synthesize his 
idea of a corporeal, and even material, soul with his fundamental doctrine 
of the resurrection of the flesh. 

What now is the precise nature of this resurrection body which he terms 
the resurrection of the flesh ? There is, in the first place, a stern insistence 
upon the restoration of the former body. " Souls are to receive back at 
the resurrection the self-same bodies in which they died." They are also 
to resume the same conditions and the same ages (Soul 56). He concludes 
his special work on the resurrection by stating the belief which to him is 
the only true and well-founded belief — "and so thy flesh shall rise again, 
wholly in every man, in its own identity, and in its absolute integrity." 1 On 
the other hand, he speaks of certain changes which will come about in 
the resurrection body. It is significant to notice that whenever language 
is used giving the impression of a change in the risen body, it is while he 
is either making use of Jesus' answer to the Sadducees, or of Paul's two 
classic passages on the subject. It is very evident therefore that what 
sometimes seems to be an inconsistency in his presentation is simply an 
attempt to conform to some of the expressions of Jesus and Paul. After 
all, the change of which he speaks is merely a change in the unaltered sub- 
stance of the flesh. Change he insists does not destroy. Incidentally 
he mentions (42) a discovery in Carthage which furnishes him with a 
proof that death changes but does not destroy our mortal bodies. W T hen 
the men were laying the foundation of the Odeum, they disturbed some 
ancient graves, and the horror-stricken people looked upon bones which 
after some five hundred years were still sound, and hair which still retained 

1 De Resur. Carnis 63: " Resurget igitur caro, et quidem omnis, et quidem ipsa, 
et quidem integra." 



58 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

its perfume. " Changes, conversions, and reformations will necessarily 
take place to bring about the resurrection, but the substance of the flesh 
will still be preserved safe" (55). There will be no change in form and 
appearance of the risen body, from the mundane body, save that mutilated 
bodies will be restored whole (56), and that some organs will lose their 
functions. In short, the only change, it seems, which the resurrection 
body will assume is summed up in the word "incorruptibility;" and, in 
reality, this is not at all different from the conception of Irenaeus. The 
deflection from this position is seeming, not real. Fundamentally he held 
that bodies will rise exactly as they were put in the grave, with the same 
form and with the same component parts and particles; and that at a cer- 
tain stage in the resurrection the righteous will be clothed upon by a super- 
vesture from heaven, which will in no wise change the flesh, but only make 
it perfect, incorruptible, whole, and fit for heaven. 

There is also in his thought a relation between the resurrection of Jesus 
and the resurrection of men. The flesh of Christ which came through 
the virgin birth rose again in absolute identity. And as is this resurrec- 
tion so is also our resurrection. Tertullian shows at the conclusion of his 
treatise, On the Flesh of Christ, that there is a close connection between 
Christ's flesh and the resurrection of the flesh, and also states therein that 
this treatise was introductory to his greater work, On the Resurrection of 
the Flesh. The resurrection narratives as set forth in the gospels are 
referred to and interpreted in harmony with his conception of a bodily resur- 
rection in the material sense. Thus Jesus rose from the dead on the third 
day, and was received back into heaven (Answer to the Jews 13). He 
comments especially on Luke's narrative, and interprets it in none other 
than in a material sense, enlarging now and then with additional proofs 
to show that that which appeared to the disciples was not a phantom, but a 
real body. He says that Jesus offered his hands and his feet for examination, 
and asked his disciples for some meat, for the express purpose of showing 
them that he had teeth (Against Marcion IV. 43). The Gospel of John 
does not state that Thomas touched Jesus when he presented himself to 
him in the upper room; but Tertullian, who is so convinced of a material 
risen body, asserts that Thomas touched him and that "the touch was 
true and real" (Soul 17). It is also very interesting to notice that there 
are imbedded in these writings two traditions concerning the resurrection 
of Jesus which are unique. The one states that Jesus spent forty days 
with his disciples down in Galilee, a region of Judea (Apol. 21); the other, 
which he distinctly calls a tradition, reads that the gardener removed the 
body in order that his lettuce might not be spoiled by sight-seers (The 
Shoivs 30). 



THE GREAT POLEMICISTS 59 

The voluminous material into which Tertullian has drawn us through 
his voluminous treatment may be thus summarized: (i) the resurrection 
held the foremost place in his writings, and his treatment of it was largely 
apologetic, being directed against Gnostic teachings; (2) the resurrec- 
tion is a resurrection of the flesh, which rises again " wholly in every man, 
in its own identity, in its absolute integrity," the only change being in a 
perfection of the flesh, and in an incorruption on the part of those who will 
be clothed upon when they enter the kingdom; (3) the resurrection nar- 
ratives of Luke and John are adhered to in the references to the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus; and there is not merely a reproduction of the crass material- 
ism of these narratives, but the body is either consciously or unconsciously 
given a still more realistic form; (4) the teachings of Jesus and Paul 
on the resurrection are comprehensively treated, but misinterpreted; (5) 
the approach to the resurrection is from almost every standpoint, and 
the arguments of the apologists and Irenaeus are recast and restated in 
the brightest light, together with additional material. 

In the two great polemicists — Irenaeus and Tertullian — the doctrine 
of the resurrection of the flesh became crystallized and reached its fullest 
treatment. The doctrine is established; it has currency in the creed, and 
the arguments in substantiation of it are most carefully and comprehen- 
sively wrought out by Tertullian. The battle against the Gnostics is won, 
and from henceforth the subject receives less attention and very little incre- 
ment. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL 

Turning to the Alexandrian school we are confronted with a different 
situation and another presentation of the resurrection. Alexandria was 
the fountainhead of Hellenistic speculations, and there is an a-priori pre- 
sumption that the idea of the resurrection was influenced by this atmos- 
phere. An inductive study at once reveals the fact that the resurrection 
is conceived of in a sense other than it was by Irenaeus and Tertullian. 
Clement of Alexandria has hardly anything to say on the resurrection. It 
has for him little interest, and is not a fundamental doctrine in his con- 
ception of Christianity. He promised, however, a treatise on the resur- 
rection, but evidently he never composed it, or if so, all traces of it are lost. 
In his extant writings the references to the resurrection are not merely 
brief but also fanciful, so that one can scarcely be confident in the inter- 
pretation of certain passages. Clement repeatedly speaks of the after-life 
in the sense of immortality; and whenever he refers to the future life in 
a general way, one receives the impression that in the hereafter it is the soul 
merely that survives. Scripture is never appealed to in an effort to prove 
the resurrection, or in an attempt to set forth its nature. In any case 
Clement invariably approaches Christian truths from a philosophical 
basis rather than on scriptural grounds, and whenever he uses Scripture 
he prefers an allegorical interpretation. 

Clement disparaged the body rather than elevated it to the dignity which 
others had given it. He does not think that the resurrection of the body 
is necessary on the ground that it may share in the rewards and punishments. 
"The soul of man is confessedly the better part of man, and the body the 
inferior" {Strom. IV. 26). The body is the source of sinful tendencies, 
though not necessarily evil. Piety is for him ascetic, a steadfast abstrac- 
tion from the body and its passions. "The Gnostic soul must be conse- 
crated to the light, stript of the integuments of matter" {Strom. V. 11). 
The elect man dwells in the body simply as a sojourner; for he leaves his 
dwelling-place — his body — and turns to heaven, giving thanks for his 
sojourn and blessing God for his departure {Strom. IV. 26). Souls when 
released from their bodies in Hades are able to perceive more clearly, 
because they are no longer obstructed by the paltry flesh {Strom. VI. 6). 
Thus in his general attitude to the future, in his conception of piety, and 

60 



THE ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL 6 1 

seemingly in his disparagement of the flesh, Clement teaches a doctrine 
of man's survival after death consonant with the Greek idea of immor- 
tality. 

On the other hand, Clement speaks of the resurrection of the body 
and the resurrection of the flesh. He repeats these stereotyped expressions 
without defining their content. In at least two instances he refers to that 
which rises as flesh {Paed. II. 10; III. i). But at the same time it is 
very evident that he does not endeavor to convey the idea that the resur- 
rection is a fleshly resurrection. If he teaches anything concerning a 
resurrection body, it is a glorified frame which is to be different from this 
present body. Christ rose "through fire, as the wheat springs from decay 
to germination," or as earthly fire changes wheat into bread. 1 If these 
words are to be taken seriously, then fire is the agent, not of chastisement, 
but of sublimation, by which an organism is fitted for existence in a new 
sphere. Clement also uses a few incidents from the resurrection narratives 
of the gospels, and one from the Preaching of Peter, but without comment 
or application. 

The situation in the mind of Clement is something like this. He firmly 
believes in the future existence of the soul. This is in conformity with 
the trend of his thought and his idea of the relation of body and soul and 
his philosophical tendencies. But he cannot free himself from the current 
accepted terms applied to the resurrection. Hence, he is driven to an 
inconsistency, saying at one time that the resurrection is of the flesh, and 
at another that flesh is so sublimated in the resurrection that that which is 
raised is some kind of a spiritual body. This latter view lends itself more 
readily to his philosophical conceptions of Greek immortality and undoubt- 
edly was more controlling. 

Origen grew up in the same atmosphere, but contrary to Clement's 
indifference to the resurrection he discusses it with painstaking care. The 
resurrection has a real and necessary place in his system of thought; and 
he pieces together with his cunning hand his general views on the subject 
and the scriptural proofs in substantiation of it. None of his opinions, 
however, were more vehemently assailed than his teachings on the resur- 
rection. Even in his own time many were offended at his doctrine, and 
Jerome made a severe attack upon him. Origen wrote a treatise On the 
Resurrection, 2 which is unknown to us save by a few fragments. In his 

1 Paed. I 6:4: cI)S dpLcrr a/xtuyv 8ijdev [5id wvp6s] y Ka.Q6.irtp 4k (pdopas Kal arropas 6 
Trvpbs avdararai, Kal /j.4vtol 5ta irvpbs crvvi<TTa/x4vi)i' els eixppocrvi/rjv iKKXijaias ws &prov 
Treirrbp-evov. 

2 Hepl apa<rT&(reu)S. 



62 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

extant writings however the subject is treated in extenso. The doctrine 
of the soul's immortality according to the Greek idea is for him "a doctrine 

:f are-eminent imp ;rtance:" : but it is Dot the final doctrine: the doctrine 
of the resurrection is higher and truer. "If. :n the other hand, they 
[souls] ic exist, we have still to prove the doctrine of immortality; not only 
by what the Greeks have s; veil said regarding it. but also in a manner 
agreeable to Holy Scripture'" J" n:a: III. :: . C uiaen denies the doctrine 
:f metempsychosis; confutes milicsm: and assails the Gnostic denial 
:f the resurrection. 

He is fully aware of the di ffi culties urged against the historic accuracy 
:f the four gospels with reference to the empty tomb: and points out 
some of the contradictory elements in the narrative Census V. 50 . But, 
notwithstanding he emphatically assrrts the reality of the resurrection of 
Jesus, setting forth scriptural evidences to show that he was seen by many 
after the resurrection (Cdsus II. ;c . He cieciares that without the reality 
■:: Jesus' resurrection the courage ana lasting sincerity of the disciples 
weald be an enigma. He refutes tne cavils :: Ceisus vrho asserted either 
that Jesus ~as an impostor Cdsus II. "f : or that his resurrection was 
a mere deduction from the predictions :: Jesus II. 54 : :r that an image 
of what was desired came tt Alar." II. 5c . 

As emphatic as he is :n the resurrection oi Jesus sc emrhatic is he alsa 
on the resurrection of men. The soul is pre-existent, nevertheless created, 
and at death passes t: Hades, the prison of the imperfect, or to paradise, 
''the mansion of the blessed."' Nevertheless, the soul continues to have 
a body in this intermediate state as is shown by tne p aracle :f Dives and 
Lazarus. That the soul has a body in the interim between death 
ana resurrection is an increment :f Orlgen and peculiar to him. Tatian 
and Tertullian had taught that the soul is corporeal, and used this same 
aarable as nricf; but Drigen specifically states that the soul is incorporeal 
De Prin. I. 7 . A body in his mind is an added eiement that clothes an 
immaterial soul. This body, though cdnferent from that which it inhabited 
in life, is still a body, belonging t: this world, and must not be identified 
with the resurrection body, since the resurrection body belongs to another 
world. 

What now is this resurrection body? In his argument against Ceisus, 
who had ridiculed a bodily resurrection, he says. " Neither we, nor the 
Holy Scriptures, assert that with the same bodies, without change to a 
higher condition, ''shall those who were long dezd arise from tne earth 
and live again 1 ' V. rS . The body, which has underg:ne ctrrautitn. 

1 tow Tpoijyo6fierow r\fu» repl ^tv/i tmrmVKGt :;-f;; \h~iov. 



THE ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL 63 

does not assume its original nature any more than a grain of wheat which 
has decayed returns to its former condition (Celsus V. 23). The resur- 
rection body will be the same as the present body and yet by no means the 
same, is his paradoxical way of presentation. Its features are the same, 
but its texture is quite different. It will be adapted to the requirements 
of the new environment, and be bereft of all superfluous organs. In 
consequence of this some of the biblical phrases, like the " gnashing of 
teeth," cannot be literally understood. Furthermore the resurrection 
body of the wicked will differ from that of the righteous (De Prin. II. 3.) 
Of still greater import is the fact that the body when cast away shall be 
transmuted into a condition of glory which renders it spiritual (De Prin. III. 
5, 6). He calls it spiritual because the material is entirely changed. A 
spiritual body is for him not a sublimated thing which has neither shape 
nor content. He taunts the Gnostics because they spoke of a spiritual 
body which could not be described and which had no shape (De Prin. 
II. 10). Heaven and earth will not be annihilated at the consummation 
but will simply be changed in quality and transformed in appearance. 
Likewise, also the bodily nature will not be entirely destroyed, since we 
cannot conceive that beings so numerous and powerful are able to live 
without a body. Created beings cannot exist without a body; and incor- 
poreal life is conceived to be the prerogative of the Trinity alone (De Prin. 
1.6:4). 

Origen feels himself indebted to Paul for his belief in a resurrection 
body which mediates between the soul's immortality and a reanimation 
of this flesh. He interprets Paul quite accurately. Thus he dwells on 
his image of the seed (Frag. II. On Resur.; Celsus V. 18, 19); and finds 
that the body is the same, not by any material continuity, but by the per- 
manency of that which gives the law of its constitution. He finds place 
for a germinative principle called the " logos," which is implanted in the 
body and which is not destroyed (cf. Celsus V. 23). In other words, the 
soul has the vital principle of assimilating matter and of adapting it to 
its environment. The same principle and law which produce daily 
changes in the present body will create the spiritual body. 

With perfect consistency does he interpret the gospel narratives on the 
resurrection of Jesus compatibly with his general view of the resurrection. 
Whatever he claims for the resurrection of men must also be attached to. 
his view of the resurrection of Jesus, but no other. Jesus was raised and 
that in a body, which was the antitype of the former body. 1 The mortal 
quality of the body was changed into one that was ethereal and divine. 

1 Contra Celsum II. 61: iv <r(l)fxaTi avTiriir^ iy-qyepdcu. 



64 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

Commenting upon John 20:26, 27, in which the risen body is conceived 
of in a material sense, he interprets it so that the risen body is conceived 
of in a spiritual sense. "And truly, after his resurrection, he existed in 
a body intermediate, as it were, between the grossness of that which he had 
before his sufferings, and the appearance of a soul uncovered by such a 
body" (Celsus II. 62). He endeavors at some length to show that the 
term acruifxarov " incorporeal" in the phrase, "I am not an incorporeal 
demon, " taken from an uncanonical book, does not have its usual meaning 
as interpreted by Gentile authors. According to Origen's interpretation, 
the phrase discloses the fact that attention was drawn by Jesus to his resur- 
rection body; that is, not a body such as demons have, which is fine and 
as if formed out of air, neither does it resemble this gross and visible body 
of ours, but a spiritual body which continues to remain solid and palpable 
(De Prin. Pref. 8). This is most significant, since the quotation from 
the document from which it was taken and as used by Ignatius — assuming 
identity or relationship between the Gospel according to the Hebrews 
and the Doctrine of Peter — presents the resurrection in a crassly material 
way. 

Origen also finds support for the idea of a spiritual body in his theory 
of the nature of matter. There is a philosophic ground agreeable to him 
for the change which the body can undergo. " Matter, which, properly 
speaking, is without qualities, receives such as the Creator desires to invest 
it with, and frequently divests itself of those which it formerly possessed 
and assumes others of a different and higher kind" (Celsus III. 41). It 
is quite natural for this body, "which we style animal," to pass into a 
spiritual condition and assume spiritual qualities, since "bodily nature 
was so formed by the Creator, as to pass easily into whatever condition he 
should wish, or the nature of the case demand" (De Prin. III. 6:6, cf. 
II. 2:2). Transmutation and gradation of matter was, according to his 
theory of matter, a most simple affair. Matter, he held, can exist in a 
crude form in lower orders and in a higher form in spiritual bodies. 

In the Alexandrian school, especially in Origen, there is a thorough- 
going and consistent restatement of the Pauline doctrine of the resurrection. 
The ground for this view is found not merely in Scripture, but also in the 
laws and constitution of matter, in the nature of the soul, and in the germi- 
nating principle of the Logos. This view of the resurrection does not clash 
with his theological principles. Besides, in Origen there is the first real 
effort made to point out that the resurrection narratives in the gospels do 
not consistently teach the resurrection of a material organism, but that 
there is something in those narratives which pre-supposes a spiritual body. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE LATER WRITERS 

The idea of a bodily resurrection in the material sense received its 
fullest development through Tertullian, while with Origen the Pauline 
idea prevailed. The remaining monuments of the early church, falling 
within the third century and the first quarter of the fourth century, follow 
in the footsteps of Irenaeus and Tertullian, while the conception of Origen 
falls into disfavor. With the exception of Lactantius, the story of the 
resurrection from henceforth moves along the path which former writers 
have trod — with little increment. 

Methodius stands out most prominently. He vehemently assailed 
Origen's idea of the resurrection, and this occasioned a special work of his, 
On the Resurrection. The original work is lost, but large extracts have 
been preserved in Epiphanius and Photius. Like his Banquet of the Ten 
Virgins, it was in the form of a Platonic dialogue, in which the arguments 
of Origen are set forth and refuted. He declares that the resurrection 
body is to be identical with the mundane body: "The body shall rise with 
bones again joined and compacted with flesh" (Banquet of the Ten Vir- 
gins IX. 2). The only distinctive marks of the resurrection body are an 
absence of dissolution and a freedom from the stains and pollutions of sin. 
Through death the very root of sin is torn out of the flesh; and the body, 
like a restored temple, is raised up again with the same parts uninjured 
(I. 5); 1 or it is restored like the recasting and remodeling of a statue 
when spoiled (I. 7, 8); or like the conflagration of the earth which, after 
being purified will again exist (I. 9). Christ, he declares, did not say that 
in the resurrection men are to be transformed into the nature of angels; 
he simply said we shall be as angels, but not angels as they are without 
bodies (I. 10-12). 

Almost all his arguments are manifestly borrowed from his predeces- 
sors. Thus man is composed of soul and body, and in the survival of 
personality the body cannot perish. The term "resurrection" is applied 
not to that which is not fallen, but to that which has fallen and rises again, 
so that the reference is, not to the soul, which is immortal, but to the flesh, 
which dies (I. 12). The mystery of the resurrection has its parallel in the 

1 All references, unless otherwise stated are to the collected extracts of his lost work, 
On the Resurrection. 

65 



66 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

generation of man (I. 14). To Paul's expression, " flesh and blood," is 
given an ethical meaning (III. 5). He sets forth, however, an original 
argument when he makes the Feast of Tabernacles a type of the resurrec- 
tion. Just as the tabernacle when fallen down is again built, so our taber- 
nacle when fallen down is put up again (I. 14). There is in Methodius 
the fullest expression on the resurrection subsequent to Origen, but it is 
in direct opposition to Origen's views of a spiritual body. He restates 
the creedal and orthodox position with perfect consistency, and forces 
Jesus and Paul to agree with him. 

Hippolytus also declared that the resurrection must be taken to imply 
a material body. The fullest and most significant statement is in one of 
the fragments of his writings. In it he states that the soul of the departed 
passes into Hades. For the righteous this will merely be the temporary 
abode, but for the wicked it will be the ultimate receptacle. Then, at the 
appointed time, there will be a resurrection of all men, whereupon the soul 
will unite with the former body, and will not be transferred to another 
body as Plato had taught (Frag. Against the Greeks or Against Plato). 
There should be no difficulty, he continues, in believing in this resur- 
rection; for if God, as Plato thought, originated the soul and made it immor- 
tal, then it should be easy for us also to believe that God is able to raise 
the body. There is a vast difference, however, between the resurrection 
bodies of the righteous and those of the wicked. The primeval trans- 
gression makes it necessary for the body to be committed to the earth. 
That of the righteous when raised will be molded anew, giving to it the 
qualities of purity and incorruptibility. "But the unrighteous will receive 
their bodies unchanged, and unransomed from suffering and disease, and 
unglorified, and still with all the evil in which they died." The risen body 
of Christ is the same body which he had before his resurrection. He is 
the firstfruits, and raises that flesh which is common to all humanity. 
Hence we have in him, as our Savior, an assurance also of our own resur- 
rection. From the gospel narratives are selected the story of the empty 
tomb and the physical appearances of the risen Christ in John and Luke. 

Minucius Felix says nothing of the resurrection of Jesus, and does not 
use Scripture to prove any of his ideas on the resurrection. The query 
and taunt of Caecilius (Octavius 11), who wishes to know whether or no 
Christians rise again without a body, with the same body, or with another 
body, is answered. Octavius is made to say that the world is to be con- 
sumed by fire, since everything which has a beginning has an end, and 
that the ancient philosophers are not averse to a burning up of a world; 
yet it is evident that God will raise up our former bodies, no matter what 



THE LATER WRITERS 67 

the condition after death will be. He employs the time-honored argument 
that that which was first formed by God can be re-formed, since the latter 
is the easier process. He also uses many of the analogies from nature which 
former writers had originated (Octavins 34). 

In Commodianus chiliasm again comes to the front, and that in its 
most literal form. Millenarianism was still current in some circles. The 
resurrection of which he speaks is a literal restoration of the former body. 
The Lord will appear in a bodily form at the end of the ages and the fires 
will come and touch all places, but the camp of the faithful (Instructions 
41-45). Commodianus is silent as to the final and general resurrection, 
but goes into details with reference to the first. In the first resurrection 
the city will descend from heaven; the believers will rise again and will 
be incorruptible; then they will live for a thousand years. 

Cyprian presents us with an incidental reference to the resurrection, 
and that only with reference to Jesus. He emphatically asserts that Christ 
both " originated the resurrection of the flesh" and also showed himself 
to his disciples in his former flesh (Epistles 72:5). His other reference, 
being as striking and singular, reads; " [Jesus] appeared to his disciples 
as he had been. He gave himself to the recognition of those that saw him, 
associated together with him; and being evident by the substance of his 
bodily existence, he delayed forty days, that they might be instructed by 
him in the precepts of life and might learn what they were to teach" (Treat- 
ises VI. 14). 

Novatian closely connects salvation with the resurrection of the body. 
He believed that if the body were not to rise then there would be no salva- 
tion, and if God were either unable or unwilling to save it then there would 
be no reason for having created it. Christ's resurrection was a fleshly 
resurrection, for he "was raised again in the same bodily substance in 
which he died;" which fact is evident from the wounds which he bore in 
his resurrection body. In Christ's resurrection is the assurance of our 
own resurrection, since he shows the laws of that resurrection common to 
men. Paul's expression, " flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom 
of God," has for him reference to the guilt of the flesh and not the sub- 
stance thereof (Trinity 10; cf. 21). 

In addition to stereotyped creedal expressions which occur in his writ- 
ings, Gregory Thaumaturgus refers to a few post-resurrection incidents 
in the life of Jesus taken from the gospels. " Christ, on rising from the 
dead, showed his disciples the print of the nails and the wound made by 
the spear, and a body that could be handled, although he also had entered 
among them when the doors were shut with a view of showing them at once 



68 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

the energy of the divinity and the reality of the body" {Faith i). Herein 
is a noteworthy increment in an effort to explain two ill-according ideas in 
a resurrection narrative. Another increment is the relation of the virgin 
birth to the resurrection. Jesus was born of Mary that the resurrection 
might be exhibited and life eternal instituted in the world {Homily II). 

Archelaus does scarcely more than assert the reality of the resurrection 
of Jesus and the consequences accruing therefrom, in his opposition to 
Manes {Disputation with Manes 49) . Alexander of Alexandria approached 
the resurrection from a truly theological standpoint. Through the fall 
man became subject to death, and in death the body is dissolved and returns 
to dust; but through Christ, of which his resurrection is an integral part, 
man's body is capable of being created anew in the future. An evidence 
of this he finds in Matthew's account of those who came forth from the 
tomb at the crucifixion, being released by Christ, and being the first to do 
so {Epistle on the Arian Heresy V. 3-6). 

Arnobius adheres to the resurrection of the flesh, but in somewhat 
obscure terms. He finds it symbolized in Plato's myth, where the world 
begins and revolves in an opposite direction, and in which a reverse develop- 
ment from old age to childhood occurs {Against the Heathen II. 13). He 
scorns the heathen idea of a punishment in the infernal regions, when at 
the same time they teach that souls are incorporeal. The soul, however, 
is neither mortal nor immortal but neutral, and it, as well as the body, 
must be made immortal by the will of God (II. 31-36). With reference 
to the resurrection of Jesus, he says that after he arose "he manifested 
himself in open day to countless numbers of men;" also, "Lest they should 
imagine that they were deceived by unsubstantial fancies he showed him- 
self once, a second time, yea frequently in familiar conversations." 

In the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles the resurrection is described 
as follows: 

The almighty God himself will raise us up through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
according to his infallible promise, and grant us a resurrection with all those that 
have slept from the beginning of the world; and we shall then be such as we now 
are in our present form, without any defect or corruption. For we shall rise 
incorruptible: whether we die at sea, or are scattered on the earth, or are torn to 
pieces by wild beasts and birds, he will raise us up by his own power (V. 1, 7). 

The resurrection of Jesus as interpreted from the gospels is in a fleshly 
body (VI. 6, 30; V. 1, 7; V. 3, 19; VIII. 1, 1). The assurance of a fleshly 
resurrection he also finds in the symbol of the phoenix, in the examples 
of those who were raised, and in the analogy of procreation. 

In the ancient Syrian documents there is very little on the resurrection; 



THE LATER WRITERS 69 

enough, however, is found to indicate that whenever the term resurrection 
is used it has reference to the revivification of the former body; and enough 
to convince us that this was the belief of the Syrian church. In the apocry- 
phal New Testament books the resurrection of Jesus assumes all kinds 
of fantastic shapes. This is especially noticeable in the Gospel of Nico- 
demus; wherein we may observe that, in addition to the appearances of 
those mentioned in the canonical gospels, there was an appearance also 
to Joseph of Arimathea. The writing also shows the importance which 
was attached to that Matthean narrative describing the guarding of the 
tomb. In the Passing of Mary the resurrection act of Jesus was repeated: 
Christ's tomb was empty, his mother was placed in it, her body was raised, 
and her ascension observed. In the Revelation of John every human being 
is spoken of as rising when thirty years old, so that in the hereafter all shall 
be of one appearance and one size, just like bees, not differing one from 
another. 

In Lactantius we are confronted with a unique and peculiar situation- 
His teaching on the after-life abounds with inconsistencies. The only 
solution to the problem lies in the fact that the two streams of influence — 
the Greek and the Christian — continued to remain formative in his life 
without perfect reconciliation. Because he was converted to Christianity 
late in life, it is not strange that this should have been the case. In the 
first place, he sets forth the simple doctrine of the soul's immortality — and 
he devotes much more space to this than he does to the doctrine of the 
resurrection — in a most glorious light. The chief good is found in immor- 
tality alone. The world has been created that we may be born; we are 
born that we may acknowledge the Maker — God; we acknowledge him 
that we may worship him; we worship him that we may receive immor- 
tality as the reward of our labors; we are rewarded with immortality that 
we may receive the supreme Father and Lord forever, and may be to all 
eternity a kingdom of God {Divine Institutes VII. 6; cf. III. 12, 80). 
Immortality is a gift from God and conditioned on virtue, since otherwise 
there would be no difference between the just and the unjust {Divine 
Inst. VII. 5). In proving his doctrine of immortality he does not appeal 
to Scripture, but falls back on the heathen writers. Cicero and Virgil 
are especially appealed to. 1 

On the other hand, as an appendix to his work, and seemingly also as 
an appendix to his real convictions an this matter, he treats of a bodily 
resurrection. Strange, indeed, that side by side with his simple idea of 
immortality we should not merely find references to a literal resurrection 

1 Especially Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes I; Virgil, Aeneid VI. 



70 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

of the flesh, but also an adherence to the millenarian and apocalyptic ideas 
(Divine Inst. VII. 24). There will be a resurrection of the dead, but how 
this is possible cannot be explained, and the only ground for a resurrection 
of the body which he presents is the ground that "if from the beginning 
God formed man in some unspeakable manner, we may believe that the 
old man can be restored by him who made the new man" (Divine Inst m 
VII. 23). He likewise conceived the resurrection of Jesus to be a bodily 
resurrection, dwelling in particular on the empty tomb in which nothing 
was left "save the grave-cloths in which he was wrapped" (Divine Inst. 
IV. 19-21). He invents a peculiar reason for Christ's bodily resurrection, 
maintaining that death on the cross was chosen because it reserved the 
body with the bones uninjured for the resurrection, which if broken would 
have been rendered unsuitable for rising again (Divine Inst. IV. 26). As 
to a spiritual body there is absolute silence. The only solution to these 
incongruous elements to which he holds lies in the fact that the Greek idea 
of immortality and the Christian traditional idea of a material organism 
were loosely held together in his system of Christian truth. 

With the exception of Methodius, who turned the tide against Origen 
and caused the Pauline conception of a spiritual body forever to die out in 
Christian history, there is little significance attached to these later writers. 
The discussion of the resurrection is possibly a little more theological — 
relating salvation to the resurrection of Christ and to the resurrection of 
our own flesh — than it was in former writers. Lactantius, who stands at 
the close of our period, is interesting because he welded together the Greek 
conception of immortality and the Christian idea of the resurrection, but 
this was neither significant nor influential. 



CHAPTER IX 

CONCLUSION 

In making a recapitulation of this survey, we shall endeavor (i) to set 
forth the current idea concerning the nature of the resurrection body; (2) 
to indicate the formative influences which crystallized this doctrine and 
made it orthodox; (3) to exhibit all variations from this standard concep- 
tion; (4) to point out the theological and apologetic arguments which were 
employed; (5) to set forth the use and interpretation made of Scripture 
touching the resurrection; (6) to present the bearing of the facts adduced 
with reference to the transmission of the gospel material on the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus. 

1 . The current idea of the resurrection in the ante-Nicene period was 
that of a bodily resurrection in the material sense, or of this very flesh, 
with all its particles intact and unchanged. From the first post-Apostolic 
mention of the resurrection to the close of our period this conception is 
clearly traceable. Such is the view presented in all the surviving mono- 
graphs of the period — pseudo- Justin, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Methodius 
— and such is the conception which became crystallized in the early creed, 
which later on, in an enlarged form, became the common creed of Christen- 
dom. Even at the very beginning of our period Paul's conception fell 
into disfavor; and the idea of a fleshly resurrection, which subsequent 
Fathers more fully developed, with detailed descriptions and accumulated 
arguments, prevailed. The latter half of the second century and the open- 
ing years of the third, being the time of the labors of the apologists and 
the great polemicists, is the period when the fleshly resurrection was 
described in its fullest and most realistic terms. An absolute identity 
between the mundane and the heavenly body was maintained. The body 
is to rise with the same form, and with the same component parts and 
members, from the grave, as it possessed while alive. And not merely 
will the same body be restored, but also the same substances in the body. 
In fact, the former body will simply be reanimated and reinstated. Many 
a writer assumed a quasi-scientific attitude in his attempt to set forth, in 
detailed description, just exactly how the resurrection body is to reappear 
from its dissolved parts, and how the new corporeality is to be constituted. 
Even the very elements and minutest particles, even if they are dissolved 
and mixed up with other elements or assimilated into the tissues of animals, 

71 



7 2 IDEA 01 RESURRECTION EN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

will be recalled and will take their original place in the body which is to 
be raised. 

The same gross materialism predicated of the future resurrection life 
of men was also ascribed to the post-resurrection life of Jesus. The fleshly 
resurrection of Jesus was attested with much more consistency, and with 
even a greater realism, than it was set forth in the canonical gospels. Thus, 
for example, in his post-resurrection life Jesus not merely ate, but the food 
of which he partook is purposely described, and it is even said that he ate 
expressly for the purpose of showing his teeth : he not merely revealed the 
Scriptures to his disciples, as the gospels tell us. but he also sang hymns 
with them: he not merely showed his crucified body, and challenged his 
disciples to touch and handle him. as set forth in John and Luke, but his 
wounds were actually touched, and he was actually handled; he not merely 
is described as ascending into heaven, with a silence as to the nature of 
the body which ascended, but his ascension as well as his session is in "this 
very flesh." 

A few modifications in the resurrection body were allowed by nearly 
all writers who held to these extreme physical conceptions: but in their 
minds these did not in the least contradict a fleshly resurrection. Thus, 
it is often asserted (i) that the flesh rises perfect and entire, without any 
defects and deformities which may have been acquired through birth or 
accident: (2) that the body, rising with its former members and organs. 
will, nevertheless, lose some of the functions pertaining to these organs, 
especially those of procreation and digestion; (3) that the animalism and 
the corruptibility adhering to the earthly tabernacle will And no place in 
the resurrection body, since it will be clothed upon with incorraptibility. 
These characteristic changes refer only to the resurrection of the righteous: 
while the resurrection body of the wicked — whenever such a resurrection 
is predicted — persists in all its former defects, diseases, and corruptions. 

Doubtless in many cases where the resurrection is referred to without 
specifying its character, it is a fleshly resurrection that is tacitly assumed. 
This materialistic view is unmistakably present in the apostolic Fathers; 
but it is briefly stated and suggested, rather than elaborately argued. In 
the apologists the same idea assumed a more definite form, a firmer ground, 
together with an appeal to reason. While in the polemicists the same 
idea was couched in unequivocal terms, and not merely defended through 
reason, but also supported by Scripture. The most comprehensive pre- 
sentation of this doctrine appears in Tertullian. who gathered together 
even* item of evidence and used even- thread of reason which his master 
mind could marshal. Subsequent writers walked in the footsteps and 



conclusion 73 

under the shadow of this first great Latin theologian, calmly and securely, 
so that their contribution to the idea of a fleshly resurrection is very small. 
Indeed, this latter statement need not be confined to our period; it applies 
to all subsequent Christian history. The phrase " resurrection of the 
flesh" is found nowhere in Christian literature prior to Justin (Dia. 80), 
but the belief in the resurrection of the flesh was current and widespread 
long before the phrase was coined. In fact, there is a progression of terms 
each conveying the same content — the resurrection of the dead, the resur- 
rection of the body, the resurrection of the flesh. 1 The first is mainly 
biblical, the second belongs chiefly to the early Fathers, while the last 
superseded both and became the universal phrase of Christendom, finding 
its way into the Apostles' Creed. 

2. Four influences were formative in creating, establishing, and stand- 
ardizing the idea of a resurrection of the flesh such as has just been described. 
Two of these were negative — Hellenism and Gnosticism; and two were 
positive — Jewish messianism and the resurrection narratives of the gospels. 

a) We began with an a-priori presumption that because Christianity 
was very early transported to Graeco-Roman soil, Graeco-Roman influences 
would be operative. An inductive study has revealed the truth that the 
Christian idea of the resurrection was materially influenced by the Greek 
conception of immortality. Contrary, however, to the usual influence 
of Greek thought on Christian ideas, the influence in this case was emphatic- 
ally negative. It has-been correctly pointed out that the tenets of official 
orthodoxy, especially with reference to the idea of God and the person of 
Christ, are highly colored, in form and content, with Graeco-Roman thought. 
But with respect to the resurrection this statement does not hold good. 
There is no compromise with the Greek idea of immortality, but an oppo- 
sition to it. The early church set itself so rigorously against the simple 
doctrine of the soul's persistence without a body after death, that, in oppo- 
sition to it, it was impelled to set forth a most literal and gross conception 
of the resurrection. The resurrection of a physical body was very abhorrent 
to Graeco-Roman culture; because in it the Platonic idea of the body — 
to o-C>ixa o-rjfxxx — is pronounced. And, in opposition to Platonic dualism 
and the disparagement of the flesh, the apologists not merely undertook 
to show its worthfulness, but also took in hand a detailed demonstration 
of the resurrection in a quasi-scientific manner. 

b) Gnostic influence is parallel to Hellenistic influence, and, in reality, 

1 The change in the titles of the early monographs is scarcely accidental, but con- 
veys some significance: Pseudo- Justin, irepl dvaardaews ; Athenagoras, irepi dvaa-rd- 
cews veKpdv; Tertullian, De Resurrectione Carnis. 



74 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

was an indirect way in which Greek influence operated most strongly on 
Christian ideas. The Gnostics denied the salvability of the flesh and its 
resurrection; and thereby erecting a hostile camp, they became a negative 
influence in the creation and the establishment of the orthodox position. 
The church at large set itself most vehemently against Gnostic cosmology, 
and the dualism and Docetism accruing therefrom. The idea of the resur- 
rection was the crux of the whole matter. Gnosticism outlined its whole 
scheme of redemption by beginning with a denial of a fleshly resurrection. 
Irenaeus and Tertullian met, in a great intellectual combat, every argu- 
ment of their opponents; and in doing so they converted the idea of the 
resurrection of a material body into a still more materialistic conception 
than Hellenism alone would have forced them into, allowing no room for 
any variation or shadow of turning. Just as the articles of the Apostles' 
Creed were called forth by a contra- Gnostic or contra-Marcion tendency 
— of which the resurrection of the flesh is one expression — so likewise the 
bulk of the arguments in proof of the resurrection of the flesh arose because 
of the counter-arguments of the Gnostics. Indeed, these negative influen- 
ces — the Hellenic and the Gnostic — were important factors in the deter- 
mination of the crystallization of the resurrection conception. 

c) It was pointed out in a former chapter that the Jewish belief in 
the resurrection, save in Alexandrian Judaism, was that of a bodily resur- 
rection in the material sense for the purpose of participation in the messianic 
kingdom. The resurrection was a preliminary condition of entrance 
into that sensuous kingdom to be established at the time of the Messiah's 
coming. This eschatological element was all-controlling in the days in 
which Christianity had its birth and early development. Messianic and 
apocalyptic ideas were bodily transferred to Christianity. Salvation was 
a thing of the future, and it included the enjoyment of a visible and a 
material kingdom to be established at Christ's second coming. A neces- 
sary corollary to all this was a general resurrection in which the dead bodies 
were to be reanimated and reinstated. The Jewish apocalypses imbedded 
in Christian thought and literature, such as those found in the eschato- 
logical discourses of our canonical gospels, and the apocalypses of John 
and Peter, were a most potent influence in the creation and the establish- 
ment of the idea of a fleshly resurrection. Chiliasm likewise was an ele- 
ment which played no small part in the formation of the resurrection con- 
ception. The saints who were to share in Christ's kingdom on earth 
were represented as rising in the flesh; and it was a logical sequence to 
project into the second resurrection that which was true of the first. When, 
however, the sensuous view of an earthly temporal kingdom died away, 



conclusion 75 

and when chiliasm was no longer in force, and when the goal of future des- 
tiny immediately became heaven, the idea of the resurrection of the flesh 
continued to persist in spite of the cessation of the influence that gave rise 
to it. Though the Christian idea of a bodily resurrection was propped 
by other than Jewish influences, it must not be forgotten however that it 
had received a momentum from Jewish messianism which carried it along 
in history beyond the days of chiliasm and apocalyptic ideas. 

d) Similarly, the gospel narratives of the resurrection of Jesus, both 
canonical and uncanonical, were formative influences in the creation and 
crystallization of the orthodox position. These narratives, as a whole, 
give us a picture of a mere revivification of a fleshly body, which had lain 
in the tomb. The empty tomb and the nature of the appearances as 
described in the Gospels of John and Luke naturally control the uncritical 
student in the formulation of his conception of the resurrection. These 
narratives are so realistic and so simple and so vivid that when once read or 
heard they cannot easily be blotted out of the memory; and the tendency 
in every uncritical mind is so to interpret all the post-resurrection narra- 
tives as to accord with the most realistic ones, and also to interpret Paul 
and Jesus in consonance with them. Unequipped with critical apparatus, 
the ante-Nicene Fathers did just this very thing — which indeed has also 
been done repeatedly since. The account of an empty tomb and a bodily 
appearance had been a potent influence ever since it was conceived, but 
more so after oral tradition was succeeded by written narratives, and still 
more so after these had become canonical. 

3. A bodily resurrection in the material sense, though it was in the 
ante-Nicene period, the prevailing view, was, however, not the exclusive 
view. A variety of other views which differed considerably from that of 
the church at large were sometimes held and received currency in some 
circles. Naturally we think first of the Gnostics, who believing only in 
the future existence of the soul, denied the salvability of the flesh and dis- 
claimed its resurrection from the grave. Their psychology was Platonico- 
dualistic. They asserted the destruction of the body, but affirmed the 
eternal continuity of the soul. There was, however, a slight deviation from 
this elementary psychology on the part of a few Gnostic sects, but not to 
such an extent as to alter this fundamental tenet. Some taught a resur- 
rection, not of the soul as such, but a continuance of something within the 
soul, the inner or intellectual life (Valentinus) ; while others maintained 
that the resurrection is neither of soul nor of body, but of a third substance 
(Lucan). 

In the second place, there were those who interpreted the resurrection 



76 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

in an ethico-religious sense instead of an eschatological sense. They taught 
that the resurrection has already taken place in the believer who has started 
in the new life. Such a view is referred to in II Tim., and reappears more 
fully in Paul and Thecla. Now the Pauline view of the resurrection is 
found only once in our period, and that is in the Alexandrian school. 
Origen deliberately denied a fleshly resurrection and held consistently to 
a conception compatible with Paul's characterization of a spiritual body. 
This, in fact, is the only Pauline peak in our period. The ground on which 
Origen based his ideas was twofold: a correct interpretation of Pauline 
teaching, and a philosophic conception of matter not incongruous to a 
spiritual body. 

As a rule every Christian monument of our period is consistent — that 
is, it holds to the one or the other view — but there is also an inconsistency 
in some writers, or rather an overlapping of one view upon another. Just 
as in the resurrection appearances described by Luke and John the idea of 
a spiritual body and of a material body are placed side by side, if not inter- 
woven or even welded together; so likewise in the Fathers personal 
immortality (Greek), spiritual body (Paul), and a material body (Luke- 
John) sometimes overlap, and this in various combinations. Athena- 
goras postulates a resurrection of the flesh in as gross and material a form 
as could be imagined, and yet there are passages which undoubtedly reflect 
a Pauline thought, and when read in isolation from the rest, come close 
to the idea of a spiritual body. In fact, he goes so far as to use the term 
"heavenly spirit" for the resurrection body. This is the clearest instance 
of the overlapping of the Pauline idea upon the fleshy idea. This 
was presumably a conscious overlapping, and we are of the opinion 
that the same thing is true in a lesser degree, and unconsciously, in some 
others. Even Irenaeus and Tertullian, the strongest advocates of a fleshly 
resurrection, were driven to make some compromises with Jesus and 
Paul whom they interpreted. They compromised in so far as they predi- 
cated a clothing upon and an incorruptibility and a state of discontinued 
organic functions. In Lactantius, on the other hand, there is a syncretism 
between the Greek idea of immortality, to which he logically holds, and 
the current conception of a fleshly body, associated with the crudest chiliasm. 
And in Clement of Alexandria there is an eclecticism of terms, culled from 
three possible conceptions. 

4. A variety of arguments were adduced in support of the fleshly 
resurrection, and various theological implications were attached to this 
idea. Gnosticism vilified the flesh and denied its salvability, while the 
Alexandrian school held to its inferiority; but the church at large — and 



CONCLUSION 77 

this was often the first step in the argument — associated salvation with 
the resurrection of the flesh. The two ideas were as a rule inseparable, 
so that salvation of the flesh and resurrection of the flesh became synonymous 
terms. Salvation was conceived wholly eschatologically; it meant, in its 
Jewish coloring, eternal life and the enjoyment of everlasting felicity in the 
presence of God and in company with his saints. Paternal life apart from 
the participation of the flesh was conceived impossible. Hence the neces- 
sity of proving the religio-ethical worth of the body, which was the second 
step in the argument. The flesh was created by God, and not by the 
Demiurge or angels; it had a special creation, was stamped in God's image, 
is the temple of the Holy Ghost. God, it was declared, could not destroy 
his own creatures, much less his image in which his Spirit resides. Hence 
the flesh cannot be destroyed, but must rise again. Furthermore, the flesh 
is not the sole source of man's sinfulness, but both soul and flesh act together; 
wherefore both must again be united after death for judgment. 

More significant still is the use made of the resurrection of Jesus in this 
connection. The earliest apologetic use of the resurrection of Jesus was 
to show his messiahship, as is clearly indicated in the New Testament. 
Then his resurrection was made an apologetic to substantiate his divinity. 
But the chief use to which his resurrection was put, and that very early 
(cf. Ignatius), was to prove his humanity and the reality of his flesh. The 
proving of the physical resurrection of Jesus was often for no other reason 
than that it served as a link in a series of anti-Docetic arguments in which 
the reality of the flesh of Jesus was at stake. One purpose of adducing 
Christ's resurrection was merely to show that he really assumed flesh. In 
the theological thinking of the early church, the reality of the flesh of Jesus 
and the resurrection of that flesh were indissoluble, and of momentous 
consequence to man's redemption and salvation. The reason that Christ 
assumed flesh w r as — it was alleged — for the purpose of saving the flesh of 
man, which otherwise would have been destined to decay: that is, in Christ's 
flesh and in the resurrection of that flesh is the assurance of our own fleshly 
resurrection. It was also asserted that if Christ's resurrection was not a 
bodily resurrection in the material sense then the Eucharist is of no effect, 
and man fails to take the " medicine of immortality." A few of the Chris- 
tian Fathers also associated the virgin birth with the resurrection, affirming 
that through that birth his flesh became incorruptible so that it could rise 
again. The Pauline idea that Jesus was raised for our justification is 
however, never referred to. 

But there were also other arguments in support of the current concep- 
tion of the resurrection. The arguments thus far considered, from the 



78 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

standpoint of salvation, applied only, in logical consistency, to the righteous. 
But the unrighteous souls were also conceived of as coming forth from Hades 
on the last day uniting with their former bodies, that they might be judged 
and receive punishment. Although the soul, whether spoken of as cor- 
poreal or incorporeal, was thought of as being sensible to inflictions and 
blessings; nevertheless, full recompense could not be given in the disem- 
bodied state. Again, it was thought unworthy of God's goodness and 
justice not to allow the flesh to share in the rewards of its good works, or 
in the punishment of its evil works. Finally, the Fathers undertook to 
show that the resurrection of the flesh was perfectly natural, and that God 
has both the power and the knowledge and the will to bring it about. If 
God could create the body in the beginning, he surely can re-create it from 
the dissolved elements at the last day. The analogy of the seed, the plant, 
the heavenly bodies, and the seasons, and the symbol of the phoenix were 
furnished as collaterally confirming the possibility of the resurrection. 
The mystery of life and growth from procreation, the scriptural miracles 
of healing, and the final end of man were also used as proofs of a physical 
resurrection. 

5. Just as there is no uniform conception of the nature of the resur- 
rection, so there is also no uniform system in the use and interpretation of 
Scripture. Those who adhered to the current conception of the resurrection, 
as a rule, followed in a certain line, and deviated very little from one another; 
while the methods of Origen and the Gnostics are at variance with them. 
The church at large, from the very first, endeavored to find authoritative 
proof in the Old Testament in support of its doctrine of the resurrection 
of the flesh. The two passages in the canonical Old Testament literature 
which set forth a resurrection were used a few times as proof-texts: the 
passage from Isaiah being used at least six times, the passage from Daniel, 
three times. However, in their search for proof -texts and in their depend- 
ence upon the Septuagint, which at times deviates from the original, the 
orthodox Christians found a great many passages substantiating the resur- 
rection of the former body. Psalms and Job were freely used in this way. 
The translation of Elijah and Enoch, the preservation of Jonah in the 
whale's belly, and the preservation of Ananias and Azarias and Misael in 
the fire were also used as proofs of the possibility of a bodily resurrec- 
tion. The classic example in the Old Testament for them was Ezekiel's 
vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. There was also a slight dependence 
on the apocalyptic literature, especially the Book of Enoch. 

As concerns the usage of the New Testament, there is, in the first place, 
a dependence on the Christian apocalypses as preserved in our gospels, 



conclusion 79 

in Paul, and in Revelation. The parable of Dives and Lazarus, too, was 
freely used in the interest of the resurrection. Nevertheless, the most 
significant and far-reaching use of Scripture was in reference to the resur- 
rection narratives of Jesus. Literary dependence is shown on all the canon- 
ical gospel narratives, and explicitly on one uncanonical gospel — the 
Gospel according to the Hebrews, used by Ignatius and Origen, 1 and 
probably by pseudo-Justin. Ignatius places it on a par with the other 
gospels and selects it for his purpose, because a certain passage in it por- 
trays the physical resurrection of Jesus in bolder relief and with more 
consistency than it is depicted in the canonical gospels. Origen states that 
this book is uncanonical, but yet he feels that he must make use of a certain 
striking expression, which was perpetuated through it. This fact is suffi- 
cient to suggest that this gospel must have been influential, and that the 
resurrection account contained therein exerted a silent influence. It seems 
evident, therefore, that pseudo-Justin, and some of the other writers in whose 
works there is such a realistic description of the touching and handling of 
Jesus, were either directly or indirectly influenced by this gospel. 

In the use of the canonical gospels the same principle of selection 
which controlled Ignatius persists. The literary use of the resurrection nar- 
ratives of the Gospels of John and Luke exceed those of Mark and Matthew 
in the proportion of one to ten, and if we deduct the present conclusion of 
Mark, we shall have very little left which is taken from Mark and Matthew. 
The account of the watch at the tomb and the report to Pilate received 
some attention; Jesus' appearance to the women is spoken of only a few 
times, and then never in its purely Matthew-Mark form; while his appear- 
ance in Galilee (not speaking of the imbedded apostolic commission, 
which, of course, was often separately used) was practically never used, 
save possibly as it is caricatured in the Gospel of Nicodemus. The same 
principle of selection is still more marked within the Gospels of Luke and 
John themselves. The two outstanding accounts in which the fleshly 
character of the risen Jesus is most pronounced within these gospels, are 
Luke 24: 36-43; and John 20: 26-29. These two narratives are repeat- 
edly and incessantly used by the Fathers, in preference to any of the other 
narratives within these gospels. And within these narratives two expres- 
sions of Jesus especially prevail: the one, "See my hands and my feet, 
that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye behold me having;" the other, "Reach hither thy finger, and 
see my hands; and reach hither thy hand and put it into my side." More- 

1 Whatever is the truth concerning the identity or relation of the Gospel according 
to the Hebrews and the Doctrine of Peter will not in the least affect this deduction. 



8o IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

over, these narratives are not merely repeated as they are reported in our 
gospels; but, as a rule, they are highly colored with comments and at 
times misquoted. The accounts are elaborated to assert an unmistakable 
fleshly body. The challenge to be touched and handled is changed to a 
real touch and a real handling. The incongruity of having Jesus pass 
through closed doors and the next moment standing in his former body, 
as a rule, was not felt. Once or twice, however, an attempt of reconcilia- 
tion was made. Irenaeus attempts to solve the difficulty, by trying to 
show that Jesus did the same thing before his death when he passed unin- 
jured through the crowd that wished to apprehend him. Gregory Thau- 
maturgus explains the phenomenon by saying that the one act was to show 
forth the energy of his divinity and the other the reality of his flesh. One 
is surprised to find, however, that comparatively little use was made of the 
empty tomb. 

In harmony with this interpretation of the resurrection narratives of 
Jesus is the attitude assumed to the teachings of Jesus and of Paul. 
The ante-Nicene Fathers interpreted Jesus as teaching the resurrec- 
tion of the flesh in his discourse to the Sadducees. Tertullian is 
spokesman for the current view when he says that Christ affirmed the 
resurrection of the two natures of man — flesh and spirit. Paul was inter- 
preted in the same way. His conception of a spiritual body, having found 
no acceptance, was explained away. The term "spiritual body" meant, 
in accordance with their interpretation, a body not devoid of flesh and 
blood, but regenerated and controlled by divine spirit. "Flesh and blood" 
was interpreted in an ethical, not in a physical sense. The expression 
"being clothed upon" could not apply, it was thought, to disembodied 
souls, but to a fleshly body. Paul's illustrations and comparisons were 
always used in the interests of a physical body. But what about incor- 
ruptibility, in the angelic state, and the purpose of this supervesture ? 
This could not be boiled down in their material crucible. Hence the para- 
dox — appearing a few times — that human beings undergo a change in their 
unchanged substance of the flesh. 

Origen pointed out contradictory elements in the resurrection narratives 
of the gospels, and at the same time made argumentative use of these 
narratives in which the physical nature of the resurrection body is evi- 
dently affirmed but he spiritualized the accounts. Jesus, he maintained, 
existed in a body intermediate between the grossness of that which he 
had before his suffering and a disembodied spirit. He adopted, more or 
less, the interpretation current among many theologians today, namely that 
there was a difference between the post-resurrection body and the ascen- 



CONCLUSION 8 1 

sion body. Paul and Jesus are correctly interpreted by him and are made 
to conform to the conception of a spiritual body. The Gnostics allegorized 
the biblical term " resurrection of the dead," and conceived the resur- 
rection appearances to be non-material, asserting that the flesh of 
Jesus was never real. They found also in Jesus and Paul a testimony 
to a non-fleshly resurrection. Although charged with allegorical inter- 
pretation, they for some reason or other came nearer to the conclusions 
which historico-grammatical interpretation reaches respecting the thought 
of Jesus and Paul than did the church at large with its dependence on the 
Gospel writers, and its control of Jesus and Paul by these. 

6. Finally, the facts investigated will admit of another deduction, 
and that is with reference to the transmission of the gospel material on the 
resurrection of Jesus prior to the fixing of that material in our present 
gospels. Now if certain forces operated of which we have direct documen- 
tary evidence and if these forces were in existence before such evidence 
is traceable, then we may suppose that these forces which the evidence 
shows to have been operative operated further than the records directly 
prove. Our study has revealed the fact that certain influences were potent 
in the creation and establishment of the doctrine of the resurrection, that 
they operated from the very beginning, and that they were in existence in 
the time of oral gospel transmission — affecting naturally the later gospels, 
Luke and John, or the Judean cycle of resurrection appearances, more 
than the earlier gospels, Mark and Matthew, or the Galilean cycle of 
appearances. 

Thus we have clearly discerned that the doctrine of the resurrection of 
the flesh was a vital question in the ante-Nicene period; that even when 
many of the other doctrines of the church were not yet vitally discussed, 
much less systematized, the resurrection of the flesh had already reached 
its pinnacle, and had become a fourth article in the Old Roman Symbol 
added to the three of the baptismal formula; that in a little more than 
a hundred years after the death of Jesus the resurrection of the flesh was 
appended to a creed; and that in less than a hundred and fifty years after 
the First Gospel was written this doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh 
was fully developed, and almost the last words as to the nature of this 
body were spoken together with the apologetic and theological arguments 
in support of it. Moreover, we have also observed that there was a con- 
stant tendency in the church at large to define the resurrection of Jesus 
in ever more realistic terms, the crudest realism coming forth out of the 
apocryphal gospels; that, in the use of the gospel narratives, the written 
records were manifestly changed, through comments and variations in 



82 IDEA OF RESURRECTION IN ANTENICENE PERIOD 

quotations, in order to teach an ever more undisputed physical conception 
of the post-resurrection life of Jesus. Such a tendency appears still more 
clearly in a comparative study of the records in which the tradition of the 
resurrection narratives of Jesus has come down to us — whereby it is evident 
that, by pushing back through the uncanonical Gospel of Peter and the 
Gospel according to the Hebrews, to the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, 
or even to the epistles of Paul, we pass from the conception of a material 
body to a spiritual body, and that between these two extremes, that is, in 
Luke and John, there is an overlapping of both conceptions. We have 
also noticed that Gnosticism was a tremendous force; that in Gnosticism, 
Docetism was a ruling element; that in the early apologetic of the church 
the idea of a fleshly resurrection was used as a link in a series of arguments 
to substantiate the reality of Christ's flesh, and nothing more; and, sig- 
nificantly, that this incipient Gnosticism with its Docetic tendencies had 
its root far back in New Testament times. In like manner, we have 
observed that Pharisaic Judaism predicated a restoration of the former 
body for the purpose of sharing in the messianic kingdom and that early 
Christianity bodily inserted this into its system of thought. 

Therefore, by bringing all these facts together, it becomes apparent 
that these positive, and these still stronger negative, influences on the idea 
of the resurrection were operative already in the period of oral gospel 
transmission, and that they must have been potent and formative on those 
resurrection narratives imbedded in the later gospels — Luke and John — 
narratives descriptive of actual appearances, which have had a real founda- 
tion in experience, but which, in the period of oral transmission, became 
highly colored with physical conceptions from an apologetic motive. 



L£Ag ? C9 



Hbe (University of Chicago 

FOUNDED UY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 



THE IDEA OF THE RESURRECTION 
IN THE ANTE-NICENE PERIOD 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE DIVINITY SCHOOL 

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(department of new testament literature and interpretation) t 



BY 

CALVIN KLOPP STAUDT 



CHICAGO 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

1909 






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